Pentagon says Nidal Hasan's execution by firing squad will be 'public' and streamed live
The Pentagon has said that the firing squad execution of Fort Hood killer Nidal Hasan will be livestreamed to the public.
Hasan, a former US army major, killed 13 people and injured 32 more in the 2009 shooting at the Texas army base.
The 56-year-old was sentenced to death by a military court in 2013 and this week, US President Donald Trump approved death by firing squad.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement on Tuesday (6 October): “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended — and President Donald J. Trump has approved — death by US Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan, the jihadist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009.
Advert
"He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting 'Allahu Akbar' during the attack.
"The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Judgement day for Hasan has finally come."
During an interview with Real America’s Voice News on Wednesday (7 October) US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution will be ‘public’.
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth also said the execution of Hasan will take place at Fort Hood on 3 December.
When asked if Hasan had made any final requests or reached out to the Trump administration following the news of his impending execution, Hegseth replied: “Don’t care. We’ll see him on December Third.”
Pentagon officials have since confirmed that the execution will be livestreamed and have said more details will follow in due course.
Hasan was behind an horrific attack on 5 November 2009, when he was working as an army psychiatrist and opened fire at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at the Fort Hood military base in Texas.
Hasan fatally shot 12 soldiers and one civilian and injured 32 others. He was then shot and severely wounded.
At his trial in 2013, Hasan claimed to have ‘switched sides’ and said he had carried out the terror attack due to his anger at being deployed to Afghanistan and out of a wish to protect Islamic and Taliban leaders from US troops.
Hasan was convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder and sentenced to death.
He has since been held at the US Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
He is set to become the first service member to be executed by armed forces since 1961.
He is one of just four inmates on death row in the US army’s justice system.
The last time the military executed a service member was in 1961, when Private John Bennett was convicted of the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl in Austria and handed a death sentence.
In the United States, firing squad executions are extremely rare.
Last year, South Carolina carried out three executions by firing squad for Brad Sigmon, Mikal Mahdi and Stephen Bryant, which were the first such executions in the US for more than a decade.
Claire Reid