The execution by firing squad of convicted military base shooter Nidal Hasan will be livestreamed, a Pentagon official said, drawing sharp condemnation of the plan to broadcast the killing.
Hasan's execution, set for Dec. 3, is poised to be the first that the U.S. military has carried out by firing squad since World War II.
"It will be livestreamed. Details will follow," the Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP of the death sentence imposed on the U.S. Army psychiatrist who shot dead 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said in a video posted on X by official Pentagon accounts on Oct. 8 that Hasan is "going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be, and we'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public."
The U.N. condemned on Oct. 9 the plan to livestream the execution, saying it would amount to torture.
"The livestreaming of an execution is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture," the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a message sent to AFP.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told CNN the plan was "disgusting."
"I understand that in this country we have the death penalty, but public executions [are] medieval," he said.
Hegseth noted that it would be the military's first firing squad execution since World War II, a reference to the case of Eddie Slovik, who was put to death for desertion in 1945.
The last U.S. military execution was carried out in 1961, when John Bennett was hanged for rape and attempted murder.
