P.R. Laws tit. 33, § 430
When, during the trial of any case pending in the District [Court] or Court of First Instance of Puerto Rico, a witness shall appear and take an oath, or shall affirm that he will testify and depose truly before any such [court] in any of the cases in which such an oath or affirmation may be administered, and after having taken such oath or affirmation, shall wilfully, and contrary thereto, state as true any material matter which he knows to be false, or which he does not know to be true, is guilty of perjury; and when such oath or affirmation is taken in open court, and is violated as herein provided, then said witness is guilty of a contempt of court, and shall be punished as hereinafter provided. If the judge presiding in said case shall be satisfied, in any case pending in his court, that a witness, after taking the oath, or after having affirmed, as prescribed by statute, to testify truly in any matter pending in the court, is guilty of perjury as herein defined, then it shall be the duty of said judge so trying the case, and he is hereby empowered on his own motion alone, to cause the arrest and detention of the party so offending, and he shall issue an order, to be served on the offending party, to appear and show cause why he should not be punished for contempt of court. The defendant shall, within a time to be fixed by the court, make his defense to the citation, and the court shall hear the testimony adduced by the prosecution and the defense, and after hearing the testimony shall pronounce judgment in the case. If the court is satisfied from the depositions which must be taken in writing that the party so cited has been guilty of perjury, then it shall be the duty of the court to punish him as for contempt of court, and the punishment for such contempt shall be a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars ($100), or imprisonment in the district jail not exceeding three (3) months, or both such punishments, in the discretion of the judge trying the case. Any person so convicted in the District Court shall have a right to appeal to the Court of First Instance, as in other criminal cases; and in case the contempt is originally committed in the Court of First Instance, the party convicted in said Court of First Instance shall have the right to appeal to the Supreme Court.
History —Mar. 9, 1911, No. 41, p. 128, § 1.