Impact of Statues of Limitations in Corruption Cases

IMPACT OF STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS IN CORRUPTION CASES AFFECTING EU FINANCIAL INTERESTS |

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4.3

FURTHER TIME-RELATED LIMITS

The excessive length of some necessary phases

of the judicial proceedings is one of the main

statutory factors leading to the frequent expiry

of limitation periods. During the trial and even

before it starts, delays can occur to extend the

time needed to carry out judicial proceedings.

One of the main concerns in some legal sy-

stems is that a case is already bound to become

statute barred when it comes to court: this can

happen sometimes because of the late disco-

very of the crime but it is more often caused by

unjustifiable extended investigations.

The time for investigations is usually set by law:

in Romania, defendants can only appeal for

review to speed up proceedings when both in-

vestigations and criminal trials are not held wi-

thin a reasonable time. Italy and Portugal have

deadlines for investigations that are not strict

and can be prolonged. In Italy, there is an ano-

malous practice at the prosecution office: ca-

ses are kept on hold without being dismissed

or brought to court until they become statute

barred

. In Greece

, the law provides that the

preliminary investigations for these offences

must be completed within two months where-

as the main investigation must be completed

within four months. The latter can be extended

by two months, though it usually lasts up to one

or even two or more years.

4.4

SPECIAL CATEGORIES

Some categories of defendants are granted

special treatments because of their position: it

is the case of Prime Ministers, members of go-

vernment or MPs. In some countries, this leads

to immunity or to the need for a special autho-

risation (for example by Parliament) to investi-

gate and prosecute them.

Therefore, some countries provide for suspen-

sions of SOL which start running again when the

mandate of the elected person is over, though

this affects the running of the absolute SOL.

This is one of the reasons why Portugal created

longer SOL-regimes for corruption-related cri-

mes which often involve politicians at any level.

Bulgaria has amended its criminal code to intro-

duce an exclusion from SOL of crimes commit-

ted by the members of the Communist Party’s

governing bodies from September 9th, 1944 to

November 10th, 1989.

As already mentioned, Italy is a unique case, ha-

ving introduced longer SOL for recidivists.

Article 4 of Law n.4022/2011.

Public Prosecutor’s Office Directive of November 24th, 2015, executing Criminal Policy Law n.72/2015.

Practitioners confirm that the large majority of cases becomes statute barred during the investigation phase.

Law 4022/2011 on Adjudication of Corruption Offenses Committed by Politicians and Senior State Officials, Cases of

Great Social Importance and Major Public Interest as well as Other Provisions