Swiss parliament decides to abolish statute of limitations for murder
In Switzerland, murder will soon be one of the offences for which there is no statute of limitations. The House of Representatives and the Senate have reached agreement on this issue after years of debate. The bill still has to go to a final vote in the Federal Assembly.
On Wednesday, a minority within the Legal Affairs Committee prevailed in the Senate, proposing that, on this issue, the earlier decisions of the Senate and the House of Representatives should be upheld. Both chambers had already voted in favour of removing the statute of limitations for murder in March 2025 and March 2026 respectively.
The decision stems from a cantonal initiative submitted by the Canton of St Gallen as far back as 2019. The canton argued that advances in DNA analysis had provided investigators with technical capabilities that would allow evidence to be gathered even a long time after the offence had been committed.
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