UN describes US plans to broadcast execution as "revolting"
Amman1 min read
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The United Nations called on Friday for the cancellation of US plans to broadcast the live execution of Nidal Hasan, the shooter who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood military base in 2009, describing them as "revolting" and adding that they could constitute a violation of the prohibition against torture.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said at the organization's daily briefing in New York, "Such public executions that we have seen in other countries, whether in Iran or Afghanistan... could represent a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
He added, "Broadcasting it live makes it, in practice, public, and could constitute a violation of the prohibition against torture... for a government to execute a person publicly or in front of live broadcast cameras is, frankly, revolting."
Hasan is scheduled to become the first person executed by a US military firing squad since 1945. The execution is set for December 3 at the same large military base in Texas, where Hasan opened fire with a handgun inside a medical facility.
