Article 69. Exemption from Criminal Liability in Relation to the Expiration of a Statutory Limitation Period

 

1. A person shall be exempt from criminal liability if from the day of the commission of a crime, the following periods have expired:

 

a) two years from the commission of a crime of a lesser gravity;

 

b) five years from the commission of a crime of a medium gravity;

 

c) ten years from the commission of a grave crime;

 

d) fifteen years from the commission of an especially grave crime.

 

2. Limitation periods shall be calculated from the day of the commission of a given crime and until the moment of the entering of a court's judgment into legal force.

 

3. The running of the limitation periods shall be suspended if a person, having committed a crime, evades criminal investigation or arraignment by a court. In this respect, the statute of limitation period shall be resumed from the moment of detention of a given person or his pleading guilty to the police. In this respect, a person may be held criminally liable if twenty five years expired from the time of the commission of a crime, and if the limitation period was not interrupted.

 

4. The running of the statutory limitation period shall be interrupted if, prior to the expiration of the periods indicated in the first part of this Article, a person, having committed a grave or especially grave crime, commits a new deliberate crime. In such cases calculation of the statute of limitation period shall start anew from the day of the commission of that new crime. In other cases, if, prior to the expiration of a limitation period, a person commits a crime again, a limitation period with regard to each crime shall run independently.

 

5. A question on the application of a limitation period with regard to a person having committed a crime for which, under the present Code, capital punishment may be sentenced, shall be resolved by a court. If a court does not consider it possible to exempt a person from criminal liability due to the expiration of a limitation period, then capital punishment may not be sentenced. In this case a court shall sentence a criminal to deprivation of freedom for a period of up to twenty five years, or to a life-time deprivation of freedom.

 

6. The statute of limitation period shall not apply to persons who committed crimes against the peace and safety of humanity.