Trump Approves Firing Squad Execution for Fort Hood Shooter Nidal Hasan

US President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, the former US Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people in a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.

The Pentagon said Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended the firing squad execution and Trump approved it. The Secretary of the Army is expected to determine the date and location for the execution, which would be the first carried out by the US military since 1961.

Hasan was sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013 after being convicted over the November 5, 2009 attack. He opened fire at a medical facility inside Fort Hood, a major US military installation used by troops preparing for overseas deployments.

The attack killed 13 people and wounded more than two dozen others. Twelve of those killed and 30 of the wounded were members of the US military. Hasan was shot by a civilian police officer who responded to the attack and was left partially paralysed.

During his military trial, Hasan represented himself and did not call witnesses or testify. Court-appointed defence lawyers had previously raised concerns that he appeared determined to receive a death sentence.

Prosecutors presented evidence linking Hasan to extremist ideology, including his opposition to US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and online communications with Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric linked to Al-Qaeda who was later killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.

Hasan, a US-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, was convicted more than a decade ago and has remained on military death row since his sentence. His approved execution now places the case at a new stage, although the Army must still set the time and place for carrying out the sentence.