Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday his request to US President Donald Trump for final approval of the execution of US military psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, sentenced to death for murdering thirteen soldiers and wounding 32 others at Fort Hood, Texas, nearly 16 years ago.
“I am fully committed to ensuring the death penalty is carried out against Nidal Hasan. This savage terrorist deserves the severest punishment the law allows for the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood. The victims and survivors deserve justice without delay,” he said in a statement to The Hill newspaper.
If approved by the White House, which has not commented on the matter, it would be the first execution after a military trial in more than six decades, following the execution of former soldier John Bennett in 1961 for the rape and attempted murder of a minor in Austria.
Hasan has been on death row at the Fort Leavenworth barracks in Kansas since he was sentenced to capital punishment in 2013 after being found guilty of thirteen counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.
In early November 2009, the son of Palestinian immigrants, who served for two decades in the US Army, opened fire on soldiers with a semi-automatic pistol, killing 13 people, including a pregnant soldier.
In a letter released in 2017, Hasan admitted to the shooting, claiming that “I considered those who tried to help the United States undermine the Taliban’s attempt to establish Sharia law (in Afghanistan) to be enemies of God and therefore worthy of fighting.”
