What is the statute of limitations in criminal cases?
The general principle in the Saudi system is that there is no statute of limitations (forgiveness with the passage of time) in criminal cases, as crimes and penalties are not waived once time has passed as a general rule.
First: The general rule (non-prescription)
According to Article 22 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the cases of termination of a general criminal case are defined exclusively as follows:
- Final judgment issued.
- Pardon of the guardian in matters subject to pardon.
- What repentance, with its legal controls, drops the punishment.
- Death of the accused. The system did not stipulate “the passage of time” as a reason for the expiration of a public or private criminal case.
Second: Exceptions in special law
There are some special penal systems that explicitly stipulate a specific statute of limitations for certain crimes, the most prominent of which are:
- Forgery crimes: The criminal case for most forgery crimes expires after (ten years) starting from the day following the occurrence of the crime, according to Article Twenty-Seven of the Penal Code for Forgery Crimes (exceptions to this statute of limitations are crimes of forging the seal of the state, the king, the crown prince, and the like).
What is the statute of limitations in criminal cases?
Third: Confirming the lack of statute of limitations for high-risk crimes
Due to the importance of some crimes, its regulations explicitly stipulate that the statute of limitations is absolutely unacceptable to fill any door to ijtihad, including:
- Terrorist crimes: Article Twenty-Nine of the System for Combating Terrorist Crimes and Their Financing stipulates that: “The case for any of the crimes stipulated in the system shall not expire with the passage of time.”
- Crimes of assault on public funds: Article Twenty-Five of the Public Funds Protection System stipulates that: “The criminal case for the crimes stipulated in this system shall not expire, and the penalty imposed shall not lapse upon the passage of time by the statute of limitations.”
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