Even those responsible for the most heinous crimes against humanity may go free because of strict time limits for prosecutions.

On 7 October 2003, the South African justice ministry announced that the five policemen accused of killing Biko would not be prosecuted because the time limit for prosecution had elapsed and because of insufficient evidence.

The latest scandal has erupted less than a week after Mr Strauss-Kahn learned he will not face charges for sexually assaulting writer Tristane Banon in Paris 2003 because the time limit for prosecution has expired.

These included raising the age of consent to eighteen, abolishing the notorious 'escape clause'(allowing male defendants in assault cases to claim they believed the girl to be over sixteen), extending the time limit for prosecutions and criminalizing incest and male importuning.

In three of these cases accusations were dropped by the judiciary because of laws passed by Berlusconi's parliamentary majority shortening the time limit for prosecution of various offences and making false accounting illegal only if there is a specific damaged party reporting the fact to the authorities.