GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Ilias G. Anagnostopoulos and Padelis V. Bratis, ANAGNOSTOPOULOS
1.4 Limitation Periods Criminal Law
tor, before or during the commission of a crime, is punishable with a reduced penalty, except if the accomplice provides direct assistance to the perpetrator for the commission of the crime. In the latter case, the court may impose on the accomplice the same penalty as that on the per - petrator (Article 47 GCC). Commission of separate offences The further receipt of fraudulently obtained assets (ie, following the completion of the fraud by the perpetrator) is likely to raise criminal liabil - ity of the involved party (recipient), as follows. • Acceptance and disposal of proceeds of crime (Article 394 GCC), which consists of the possession of objects (or the earned gains from such objects) that were acquired through criminal acts. • (Anti-)money laundering legislation (Article 2 of Law 4557/2018), which prohibits the possession of property on condition that the recipient is aware that it was acquired through criminal acts. The notion of “criminal acts” includes certain offences (such as computer fraud and bribery), as well as any other crime, from which illicit financial proceeds originate. Civil Liability An action in tort may be directed against more than one defendant at the same time, provided that the damage to the claimant was caused by the joint acts of more persons (Article 926 GCivC). The same provision applies even if simultaneous or consecutive actions of more persons have taken place to the disadvantage of the claimant but it has not been determined which of these has actually caused the damage.
According to Article 111 GCC, prosecution of criminal offences is time-barred, beginning from the day they occurred, as follows: • felonies punishable with life imprisonment have a statute of limitations of 20 years, with a possible extension of another five years during pending proceedings before a trial court; • felonies punishable with up to 20 years of imprisonment have a statute of limitations of 15 years, with a possible extension of another five years during pending proceedings before a trial court; and • misdemeanours have a statute of limitations of five years, with a possible extension of another three years, similar to above. When it comes to certain financial crimes (eg, fraud, breach of fiduciary duties), the otherwise applicable statute of limitations (15 years) is extended to 20 years, on condition that the acts are directed against the property of the Greek State. Exceptional provisions as to the statute of limitations for certain criminal offences are also included in special criminal legislation. Civil Law As a rule, the right to file a civil action lapses after 20 years from the date that the pertinent claims were born and could be judicially pursued (Articles 249 and 252 GCivC). However, if the wrongful civil act that gave rise to the respective claims constitutes, in parallel, a criminal offence, which is subject to a longer limitation period, preclusion of civil claims fol - lows the latter statute of limitations (Article 937 GCivC).
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