UN calls US plans to live-stream execution ‘abhorrent’
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A 2009 photo shows a memorial at Fort Hood, Texas, to the people killed by gunman Nidal Hasan, whose live-streamed execution at the base is scheduled for Dec 3.
PHOTO: DOUG MILLS/NYTIMES
- The UN called US plans to live-stream Nidal Hasan’s execution “abhorrent” and warned it could breach bans on torture and cruel treatment.
- Stephane Dujarric said public executions or live cameras can make punishment “cruel, inhuman, or degrading”.
- Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, is due to be the first US military firing squad execution since 1945 on Dec 3.
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UNITED NATIONS, United States - The United Nations on Oct 9 called US plans to live-stream the execution of Nidal Hasan, the gunman who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood military base in 2009, “abhorrent” and said it could be a violation of prohibitions against torture.
“These kinds of public executions we’ve seen in other countries, whether it’s Iran or Afghanistan... can constitute a form of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, or punishment,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told a daily UN briefing in New York.
“Showing it live is tantamount... to it being public, and could be a violation of the prohibition against torture,” he said.
“A government executing someone in public, or in front of live cameras, frankly, is abhorrent.”
Hasan is set to become the first person to be executed by US military firing squad since 1945.
The execution is scheduled for Dec 3 at the same sprawling Texas base where Hasan opened fire with a handgun in a medical facility. REUTERS