Why Offences Become Time-Barred: Zapatero’s Jewels and the Time Limits of Criminal Law

The recent investigation into the jewels found in the office of former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has brought to the forefront a legal institution that is regularly misunderstood outside the courts: the statute of limitations for criminal offences.

On 23 September 2026, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero informed Judge Calama of the Audiencia Nacional (Spain’s National High Court) that the most valuable pieces found in a safe in his office were, according to his account, a personal gift from the then King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, during an official visit to Madrid in June 2007. The valuation carried out in the proceedings currently puts the jewels as a whole at 1,323,915 euros. The investigation concerns, among other matters, possible tax and smuggling implications.

An essential clarification is needed from the outset: that the jewels were handed over in 2007 is, as of today, the version put forward by the defence, and Saudi Arabia has been asked to corroborate it. Nor does a valuation made in 2026 automatically lead to the conclusion that a tax offence was committed in 2007. To reach that conclusion, it would be necessary to determine the value of the pieces at that time, the tax that was due then, the amount of tax possibly evaded and whether the fraudulent element required by the tax offence was present.

But that very hypothesis helps us understand a much broader question: if an offence committed almost twenty years ago were discovered today, why might it no longer be punishable?

The answer lies in the statute of limitations.

What does it mean for an offence to be time-barred?

The Spanish Criminal Code includes the statute of limitations among the grounds that extinguish criminal liability. This is expressly laid down in Article 130.1.6 of the Criminal Code.

Put simply, an offence becoming time-barred means that the State loses the ability to prosecute and punish a given act because the time set by law has elapsed without any judicial action effective enough to keep the criminal prosecution alive.

This has a consequence that is sometimes hard to explain: a time bar does not necessarily mean that the act never happened or that, had it been prosecuted in time, it could not have amounted to an offence; it means something different: that the legal possibility of imposing a penalty for it has disappeared.

That is why a decision finding that an offence is time-barred is not exactly the same as an acquittal which, after examining the evidence, concludes that the accused did not commit the acts.

Why does the law allow offences to become time-barred?

It may seem intuitively strange. If someone committed an offence, why should the mere passing of the years prevent them from being punished?

The answer has to do with the very conception of criminal law in a state governed by the rule of law.

For decades, the Spanish Constitutional Court has explained that the statute of limitations is a self-imposed limit on the State’s power to punish. In its well-known judgment STC 63/2005, the Constitutional Court linked the statute of limitations to three fundamental ideas: legal certainty, the minimal intervention of criminal law and the progressive loss of the preventive need for punishment. Later, judgment STC 29/2008 again stressed that the statute of limitations prevents the threat of a criminal penalty from hanging over a person indefinitely.

There are several reasons behind this system:

1. Nobody can remain indefinitely under the threat of criminal proceedings

Legal certainty is one of the pillars of the legal system.

The State has the police, public prosecutors, judges and numerous investigative mechanisms at its disposal. If it does not effectively exercise its power to prosecute within the period set by law, there comes a point at which the legal system itself sets a limit.

The power to punish is not unlimited in time.

2. Over time, the need for punishment diminishes

Punishment does not exist solely as retribution for something that happened in the past. It also pursues preventive aims.

When ten, fifteen or twenty years have passed since the events without any further criminal conduct, society’s need to impose a penalty may be very different from what it was immediately after the offence was committed.

That is precisely why the most serious offences have longer limitation periods. And that is also why there is the mitigating circumstance of undue delay, which allows the penalty to be reduced in cases where, although the offence is not time-barred, it has taken an excessive amount of time to bring it to trial.

3. Time inevitably erodes the evidence

Witnesses forget. People die. Documents disappear. IT systems change. Recordings are destroyed.

Properly judging events that took place twenty or thirty years earlier can be considerably more difficult than doing so immediately afterwards.

The statute of limitations therefore also protects the reliability of the proceedings.

4. The State is obliged to act diligently

The statute of limitations also sends a message to the public authorities: the prosecution of an offence cannot be left abandoned indefinitely, so if the State wishes to keep its right to punish, it must exercise it within the time limits set by law.

When does an offence become time-barred in Spain?

Article 131 of the Criminal Code currently sets different periods according to the maximum penalty that the law attaches to the offence, not the penalty that might ultimately be imposed on the accused.

The general rule is:

Where a composite penalty applies, the one that determines the longest limitation period is taken into account. And where there are connected offences or offences committed in combination, Article 131.4 sets out certain rules tied to the most serious offence.

In addition, there are offences that never become time-barred, including genocide, crimes against humanity and certain offences committed in armed conflicts. Terrorist offences that have caused a person’s death are not time-barred either. The claim that “all offences become time-barred” would therefore not be correct.

When does the limitation period start to run?

This question may be even more important than knowing whether the period is five, ten or twenty years.

As a general rule, Article 132 of the Criminal Code provides that the limitation period starts on the day the offence is committed, but there are numerous particularities.

For a continuing offence, the period starts from the last infringement. For a permanent offence, from when the unlawful situation ends. And there are very important special rules for offences committed against minors, particularly in relation to sexual freedom, serious injuries, human trafficking or attempted homicide.

This also explains a common confusion: a permanent offence is not the same as an instantaneous offence whose effects continue for years.

The fact that the consequences of an offence persist does not necessarily mean that the limitation period has not started.

Can the limitation period be interrupted?

Yes, and this is usually one of the most debated issues in criminal proceedings.

Article 132.2 provides that the limitation period is interrupted when the proceedings are directed against the person indicated as responsible for the offence.

Proceedings are currently considered to be directed against a person when there is a reasoned court decision attributing to them possible involvement in criminal acts.

A criminal report or criminal complaint filed with the court initially produces a suspension of the period for a maximum of six months. If, within that period, the judge issues the decision required by the Criminal Code, the interruption takes effect retroactively from the date on which the report or complaint was filed.

The Spanish Supreme Court has continued to apply this doctrine recently. Judgment STS 731/2024 of 11 July points out that, in order to interrupt the limitation period, there must be a genuine judicial act directing the proceedings against a specific person, although it does not necessarily have to consist exclusively of the formal order admitting a criminal complaint. And here a fundamental feature of interruption comes into play: the time already elapsed is cancelled, so that, if the proceedings subsequently come to a standstill, the corresponding period starts running again from zero.

Back to Zapatero’s jewels

In the former Prime Minister’s case, and assuming, purely for legal purposes, that the version put forward could be proven — that certain jewels were received as a gift in June 2007 — we would be looking at a possible tax offence (Article 305 of the Criminal Code), a smuggling offence (punishable under Organic Law 12/1995 on the Suppression of Smuggling, Articles 2 et seq.) and perhaps an offence of improper bribery, known in Spain as “cohecho impropio” (Article 426 of the Criminal Code in force in 2007 – currently Article 422), all of them punishable by penalties of less than five years’ imprisonment, so that, with almost 20 years having already passed, they would be time-barred.

The statute of limitations does not erase history

The criminal statute of limitations has a very specific effect: it extinguishes the possibility of establishing criminal liability, but it does not legally transform the past: a time-barred act may still be of historical, political, ethical, tax, administrative or civil interest, depending on the case and on the time limits and rules governing each of those forms of liability. Nor does it allow anyone to conclude automatically that the act took place.

This is probably the most important distinction of all:

“It is time-barred” does not mean “innocent”, but nor does it mean “guilty”. It means only that the State can no longer impose a penalty for that act.

Speaking of guilt would require having first proven that an offence was committed, with all the safeguards of criminal proceedings.

Is Spain an exception?

Statutes of limitations for offences exist in most of the legal systems around us, although the time limits and exceptions vary considerably.

Germany

The German Criminal Code sets periods of three, five, ten, twenty and thirty years, depending on the maximum penalty for the offence. Murder in its most serious form is never time-barred. Germany also regulates in detail which acts interrupt the period and sets certain limits on successive interruptions.

As can be seen, the structure bears some similarity to the Spanish system: the more serious the offence, the longer the period during which it can be prosecuted.

France

As a general rule, prosecution is time-barred after twenty years for crimes, after six years for délits and after one year for contraventions, although there are numerous exceptions and longer periods for certain particularly serious offences.

French legislation also contains an interesting particularity: for certain hidden or concealed offences, the period may start from the moment the offence comes to light and can be established, while also setting maximum limits.

This is a particularly relevant solution for economic or corruption offences which, by their very nature, may remain hidden for years.

United States

Under US federal law there is, as a general rule, a period of five years for many federal offences not punishable by death, although there are many special rules setting different periods. Offences punishable by death may be prosecuted without any time limit.

This model shows once again that the existence of time limits on the power to punish is by no means a Spanish peculiarity.

The true meaning of the statute of limitations

High-profile cases often give the impression that the statute of limitations is a kind of flaw in the system: a mechanism by which someone manages to avoid conviction because too much time has passed.

Legally, exactly the opposite is true: The statute of limitations is part of the system of safeguards itself.

The State has the right to prosecute offences, but that right is not unlimited. It must investigate within certain time limits, follow certain rules and exercise its power diligently.

The more serious the offence, the more time will normally be available. For certain exceptionally serious crimes, the legislature has even decided to abolish the statute of limitations altogether.

But outside those cases, our legal system starts from an essential idea: no person should remain indefinitely exposed to the possibility of the State reviving remote events and exercising its criminal power over them without any time limit.

The case of the jewels attributed to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is particularly useful for understanding this.

If it is finally proven that certain pieces were received in Madrid in June 2007, as his defence currently maintains, that date could prove decisive. Not because the passing of time makes it possible to decide whether the conduct was right or wrong, but because criminal law contains its own limits.

And one of them is time.

JOSE SOLER MARTIN – LAWYER SPECIALISING IN CRIMINAL LAW
Soler Martín Abogados · Alicante · Criminal lawyer since 1996

This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Always consult a lawyer about your specific case.