Article 83 — Special Mitigating Circumstances: Family and

(1) In addition to the cases specified under various provisions of this Code to be special mitigating circumstances under Article 180, .the Court shall without restriction, reduce the punishment (Art. 180) when the criminal acted in a manner contrary to the law and in particular failed in his duty to report to the authority or afford it assistance, made a false statement or deposition or supplied false information or assisted a criminal in escaping prosecution or the enforcement of a penalty, for the purpose of not exposing himself, one of his near relatives by blood or marriage or a person with whom he is connected by specially close ties of affection, to a criminal penalty, dishonour or grave injury. The Court shall examine and determine the existence and adequate nature of the relationships invoked. (2) If the act with which the accused person is charged was not very grave and if the ties in question were so close and the circumstance SQ impelling that they placed him in a moral dilemma of a particularly harrowing nature the Court may exempt him from punishment other than reprimand or warning (Art. 122). (3) Nothing in this Article shall affect the provisions of Ans. 254(4), 335(3) and 682 (4).