Statute Of Limitations For Lawsuits – Statute Of Limitations For Punishment
Statute of Limitations
To briefly explain the statute of limitations, it is a criminal law institution that constitutes the result of the state giving up its right to punish and the criminal case being dismissed if a lawsuit has not been filed after a certain period of time has elapsed from the date of the crime, or if the lawsuit has been filed but not finalized within the legal period.
Criminal statute of limitations, on the other hand, is the renunciation of the execution of the judgment after a certain period of time has elapsed from the finalization of the conviction.
In the case of statute of limitations, the state’s right to punish disappears, but in the case of criminal statute of limitations, the sentence cannot be executed.
There are two types of statute of limitations. The ordinary statute of limitations and the extended statute of limitations. The difference here is that there is a factor that causes the statute of limitations to be interrupted. In this case, the ‘extended statute of limitations’ is applied to the suspect or defendant. According to Article 66 of the TPC, the ordinary statute of limitations for the most minor offenses is 8 years, while the extended statute of limitations for the same offenses is 12 years.
According to the TPC, the statute of limitations for each offense is determined by taking into account the upper limit of the penalty set by the law. In other words, first the upper limit of the crime is found, and according to the upper limit of the crime, it is determined whether the statute of limitations regulated in Article 66/1 of the TPC has expired. If the upper limit of the penalty of the offense in the law is not clear, according to Article 49 of the TPC, the upper limit is accepted as maximum 20 years in the case of term imprisonment.
If the penalty of the crime is determined as “imprisonment or judicial fine” in the law, even if the defendant is sentenced to a judicial fine in the conviction decision, the upper limit of the imprisonment sentence shall be taken into account when calculating the statute of limitations. If the penalty for the crime is imposed as “imprisonment and judicial fine”, the calculation is made by taking into account the upper limit of the imprisonment sentence.
However, when the evidence in the file is taken into consideration, if it is seen that the qualified forms of the crime requiring a heavier penalty may have been committed during the evaluation by the court, the statute of limitations shall be determined by taking into account the qualified form of the crime (Art. 66/3 of the TPC).
Qualified forms of the crime, which are regulated only by increasing the basic form of the crime, will also be taken into consideration when calculating the statute of limitations.
It should be noted here that when calculating the statute of limitations, only the qualified forms of the crime that require a heavier penalty are taken into consideration. In other words, if there are qualified forms of the crime that require a lesser penalty, they are not taken into account when determining the statute of limitations.