The new criminal procedure statute of limitations: the Gordian knot untangled?
The statute of limitations on criminal claims has always been a complex issue that has undoubtedly puzzled many a lawyer. All this should become a thing of the past pursuant to the Criminal Procedure Law I Act of April 9, 2024. The aforementioned law reformed the statute of limitations for criminal proceedings with the primary goal of untangling the tangle of rules.
A lot is currently moving in the criminal (procedural) law landscape. The rules on the statute of limitations for criminal proceedings have also been scrutinized and fundamentally reformed. The changes have been in effect since April 28, 2024.
Specifically, three principles apply to this reform:
- A new end point of the statute of limitations
- Elimination of grounds for interruption and limited application of grounds for suspension
- An extension of the statute of limitations
These principles can be summarized as follows:
A new end point of the statute of limitations
Previously, criminal charges had to be brought to an end before the expiration of a certain period of time, i.e. the statute of limitations. Within the limitation period, for example, a final decision of the court on the merits had to be obtained.
The Law of April 9, 2024 changes this and stipulates that judicial authorities only have to ensure that a criminal case is brought before the sentencing judge within the statute of limitations by means of a referral by the chambers, direct summons, etc.
From the time of referral to the judgment court, the statute of limitations thus no longer comes into play and the criminal claim is in principle immortalized.
Elimination of grounds for interruption and limitation of suspension
The mechanism of interruption (read: restart) of the statute of limitations allowed the prescription of criminal proceedings to be extended by, for example, the commission of acts of investigation or prosecution, without such interruption being able to lead to a period longer than twice the basic period. In practice, the interruption of the limitation period occurred quasi automatically. The possibilities for this were so broad that the incentive to investigate and prosecute with due urgency became as good as futile.
The legal figure of interruption is therefore abolished in the new law.
While the possibility of suspending the statute of limitations on criminal proceedings is retained, it is greatly curtailed by the Law of April 9, 2024. The only ground of suspension retained is that of legal impossibility to prosecute.
The extension of the statute of limitations
The third major change by the April 9, 2024 Act concerns the introduction of longer statutes of limitations.
It is opted for division into scales according to the statutory maximum penalty:
| Crime | Statute of limitations |
|---|---|
| Crime punishable by life imprisonment | 30 years |
| Crime punishable by more than 20 to 30 years of incarceration | 20 years |
| Crime punishable by more than five to no more than 20 years' imprisonment | 15 years |
| Wan company | 10 years |
| Violation | 1 year |
In addition, the list of crimes that are immutable is supplemented. In addition to crimes against international humanitarian law and sexual offenses against minors, murder and robbery also become indistinguishable if the crimes, by their nature or context, are likely to seriously harm a country or an international organization, or are of a nature to cause serious fear to the population or to unlawfully compel the government or an international organization to perform or refrain from performing an act, or to seriously disrupt or destroy the basic political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country or an international organization.
For some categories of crimes, the extension of the statute of limitations implies a doubling of the previous period. The significance of abolishing the interruption of the statute of limitations is thus completely futile.
What about the reasonable period of time?
Everyone has the right to have his criminal case heard within a reasonable time.
The earlier limitation period contributed somewhat to this by providing an incentive to bring the case to a conclusion within a certain period of time. The fact that criminal proceedings become essentially time-barred as soon as they are pending before the court on the merits, as well as the new law's extension of the statute of limitations, makes respecting the reasonable period all the more crucial.
The legislator has therefore provided for the new sanction of the forfeiture of criminal proceedings in the event of a serious disregard of the reasonable time limit. This sanction will be able to be pronounced both by the investigating court, and by the sentencing judge.
For now, it remains to be seen if and when it will actually be ruled that a serious disregard for the reasonable time period exists that will cause the criminal action to be dropped.
