I am strongly opposed to the death penalty. For obvious reasons, the grim sentence of death by electricity, execution or the deadly needle for convicted criminals is utterly reprehensible. Inhuman. I repeat: strongly opposed, but I do make an exception for all the poisonous vipers in the world who wield political power as absolute rulers in their oppressive, terrifying, murderous, and ruthless fascist regimes, in my modest opinion they are without any doubt liable to the death penalty.

Even if it is accompanied by the cruellest and most ignominious tortures, I would accept it although it would not give me any profound contentment. The world without them, all the stupid aggressive dictators, supposedly will be cleaner. Nobody will give a shit if they are gone, disappeared from the face of earth, choked in their evil.

In the year 2006 I watched the video footage of the execution of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on TV. I was relieved it finally happened and felt to my surprise the ugly feeling of revenge. My girlfriend at that time said that she regretted having watched it. I will never forget those gruesome images, she said. She actually felt compassion for the devil of the meanest kind Saddam Hussein at the moment of his execution. She did not see the devil se saw a defenceless man in a state of resignation killed by his masked executioners, as in an emotional distortion she did not consider the facts which caused this justified death penalty waged by his victims.

Now twenty years later that I think about her emotion – her feeling of empathy? of pity, of sorrow? – its pure human honesty, which is a strong indestructible virtue that keeps us alive fighting all sorts of evil, the purpose of death penalty means no compassion with the criminals, it intends to clean up the world from all the scum, but it never does. The ambition however inefficient and fruitless keeps humanism alive. Its like planting trees in wasteland. A bold gesture pregnant of the illusion of victory.