Follow Al Rai
President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist who opened fire and killed 13 people at a military base in 2009, the Pentagon announced on Monday.
On September 5, 2009, Nidal Hasan fired a semi-automatic pistol at Fort Hood in Texas, killing 13 and injuring 30.
Hasan's execution will be the first carried out by the US military since 1961.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on the platform 'X' that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth 'recommended, and President Donald J. Trump approved, the execution by a US Army firing squad of convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan'.
He added 'The Secretary of the Army will determine the date and location of the execution. The day of reckoning has finally come for Hasan'.
Hasan was sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013 for carrying out a mass shooting at Fort Hood in an attack inspired by Al-Qaeda.
He chose to represent himself during the trial, but did not call any witnesses or testify, nor did he attempt to deny the charges against him. The defense attorneys appointed by the court were concerned that he was seeking a death sentence.
On November 5, 2009, Hasan, an American Muslim of Palestinian descent, opened fire inside a medical facility at Fort Hood, which was used as a staging area for deploying troops to combat zones.
All the victims were soldiers, killed or wounded. Hasan was shot by a civilian police officer who responded to the attack and was left partially paralyzed.
The court that convicted Hasan was informed that he opposed the US military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and that he had communicated online with the radical American preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, a prominent Al-Qaeda leader who was later killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.
Know more about this story?Send us a tip
Ask about this report — answers stay grounded in its text.
