Decision on rehabilitation

Having undergone rehabilitation, an offender is entitled to deny any previous convictions and enjoy the same rights and freedoms and persons who have not been convicted

If you are an offender who has been convicted res judicata or acquitted, you are entitled to consider yourself a person who has not committed any crimes upon the expiry of the statutory period, under the conditions prescribed in the Act on the Legal Consequences of Conviction, Criminal Records and Rehabilitation.

A rehabilitated person is entitled to deny any previous convictions and may not be held responsible for this, nor may this have any legal consequences. Such person’s rights and freedoms may not be any different from the rights and freedoms of persons who have never committed a crime.

You are entitled to submit an application for a decision on rehabilitation to the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration for this purpose.

Application for a decision on rehabilitation

You can submit the application in person, by post or proxy to the Criminal Records Department of the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration, Ulica grada Vukovara 49.

You need to state your personal information, including your PIN (OIB) in the application.

For more information, you can contact the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration from Monday to Wednesday between 9 AM and 11 AM, by calling 01/3714-209

Statutory rehabilitation periods

Provided that you have not committed of a new crime, your conviction is spent after:
  • 20 years from the date of the sentence you have served, for which the limitation period has expired or for which you have been pardoned in case of a long-term imprisonment sentence
  • 15 years from the date of the sentence you have served, for which the limitation period has expired or for which you have been pardoned in case of a 10-year imprisonment sentence or more severe sentence
  • 10 years from the date of the sentence you have served, for which the limitation period has expired or for which you have been pardoned in case of a 3-year imprisonment sentence or more severe sentence
  • 5 years from the date of the sentence you have served, for which the limitation period has expired or for which you have been pardoned in case of a 1-year imprisonment sentence or more severe sentence, as well as juvenile imprisonment
  • 3 years from the date of the sentence you have served, for which the limitation period has expired or for which you have been pardoned in case of a 1-year imprisonment sentence, from the date of fine payment, from the date of expiry of the supervision period in case of parole, from the date of completion of community service and from the date of finality of the pardon decision.
Provided that you have not been convicted of a new crime and have been convicted of the criminal offence of sexual abuse and exploitation of children; that is, other criminal offences from Article 13(4) of the Act on the Legal Consequences of Conviction, Criminal Records and Rehabilitation, your conviction is spent by operation of law upon the expiry of the double of the previously mentioned periods.