"The certainty of punishment is not undermined, or even almost nullified for some crimes, by these general, fair, just and humane principles, but by the abnormal length of our trials, which means that the majority of crimes (especially financial, economic and those against the public administration, in short, the crimes of “the powers that be”, politicians and privileged citizens) fall under the axe of the statute of limitations. This already unsustainable duration has been exacerbated in the last fifteen years, after Mani Pulite, by a series of so-called “guarantee” laws with which the Code of Criminal Procedure has been crammed and which, in reality, by ensuring the statute of limitations, only guarantee the impunity of the aforementioned gentlemen."