US President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Malik Hasan, a former US Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people in a 2009 mass shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas.
Sean Parnell, senior Pentagon spokesperson, stated on social media on the 5th (local time) that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended execution by firing squad by the US Army for the jihadist Hasan, who opened fire on unarmed US service members at Fort Hood in 2009, and that President Trump approved it.
The date and location for the execution by firing squad will be determined by the Secretary of the Army.
"The Day of Judgment has finally arrived for Hasan," Parnell said.
Hasan, while serving as an Army major and psychiatric medical officer, was sentenced to death for opening fire at the Fort Hood base on November 5, 2009, killing 13 service members and civilians and injuring 32 others.
Investigations showed that Hasan, who was facing deployment to Afghanistan at the time, shouted "God is great" during the attack.
This incident is recorded as one of the worst military base mass shootings in US history.
The execution of a death sentence by the US military will be the first in 65 years, since US Army Private John Bennett was hanged in April 1961 for rape and attempted murder.
It will be the first time the US military has carried out an execution by firing squad since November 1945.
According to The Washington Post, some states, including Idaho, Oklahoma, and Utah, currently permit firing squads.
The Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit organization, stated that three people were executed by firing squad in South Carolina last year.
President Trump has long expressed his support for the death penalty.
During his first term, he resumed federal executions that had been halted for 17 years, carrying out the sentences of 13 death row inmates by the end of his term.
Although the former Biden administration suspended federal-level executions, President Trump lifted the moratorium shortly after the launch of his second term.
(Reported by Jung Da-eun | Video by Lee Yu-jin | Design by Yang Hae-min | Produced by SBS Digital News)
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