The sanctions to which a suspect may be sentenced include fines, conditional sentence, probation, imprisonment, care, foot-cuffs and community service. Different punishments may be combined.
If the prosecutor is dissatisfied with the sentence passed by a district court, he or she may appeal against it to the court of appeal, which is a higher instance. The suspect, and in some cases the victim, may also appeal against the court ruling. In the new appeal-court trial, the victim and the suspect must sometimes appear in court, despite the fact that they have already given evidence in the district court. Otherwise, their testimony from the district court is read aloud in the court of appeal.
Sometimes a so-called leave to appeal is required in the court of appeal.
An appeal may also be made to the Supreme Court against the ruling of the court of appeal. In the Supreme Court, only prosecutors specially appointed by the Prosecutor-General are allowed to appear in court. In order to have a case tried in the Supreme Court, it must be a so-called precedent, or in other words the ruling of the Supreme Court may be of importance to how courts of law pass judgement in similar cases.