Enforcement statute of limitations

The statute of limitations prevents the enforcement of a penalty or (according to German law) measures after the respective deadline has expired. The beginning of the enforcement of penalties shall be the day of the legal validity of the decision underlying (usually a sentence ).

The statute of limitations in criminal law has both material (umstr.) And formal legal character.

In principle, all sovereign activities that are carried out to enforce enforcement when the statute of limitations commences will be inadmissible.

According to German law, the statute of limitations is regulated in §§ 79-79b StGB and § 34 OWiG .

Accordingly, the following deadlines apply:

lifelong imprisonment and preventive detention no statute of limitations,
Imprisonment for more than ten years expires after 25 years,
Imprisonment for more than five years expires after 20 years,
Imprisonment for more than one year expires after 10 years,
all other custodial sentences and fines over thirty daily rates expire after 5 years,
in the case of fines of up to thirty daily rates , the limitation period is three years,
In the case of measures under Section 11 of the Criminal Code, a statute of limitations of 10 years applies, the order of supervision and the first placement in a rehab facility expires after 5 years,
Fines of more than 1000 euros become statute-barred after 5 years,
all other fines become statute-barred after 3 years.

Basically, the measures that trigger consequences for the civil status ( §§ 45-45b StGB ), the driving ban (umstr.) And the withdrawal of the driving license are not subject to the statute of limitations .

The statute of limitations begins on the day on which the decision becomes final (Section 79 (6) StGB).

The statute of limitations is suspended if enforcement has been suspended (Section 79a No. 2a StGB), legal obstacles, e.g. B. Immunity, exist (Section 79a No. 1 StGB), the person concerned is housed in an institution in Germany or abroad (Section 79a No. 3 StGB) or the person concerned has been granted deferment or payment facilities. The court can extend the limitation period by half of the statutory period if the convicted person is in a state that does not extradite to Germany (Section 79b of the Criminal Code).

Art. 309 and Art. 315a EGStGB are to be observed in the case of acts that occurred a long time ago or acts in the acceding area before October 3, 1990 .