WASHINGTON: The execution by firing squad of a convicted military base shooter will not be livestreamed, US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday, cancelling a controversial plan by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The proposal to livestream Nidal Hasan’s execution was widely opposed in the United States and abroad, prompting outrage from both Democratic and Republican politicians, the Catholic Church, rights groups and the United Nations.
READ MORE: Planned livestream of US military execution draws outrage
The cancellation is a setback for Hegseth, who is already facing criticism over the stalemated war with Iran and its fallout, which are weighing on the Republican Party’s prospects in the upcoming midterm elections.
Hasan “will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
The US president indicated that he did not personally oppose the livestreaming plan, saying it “might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan”.
However, “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die,” Trump said, adding that the execution could still be witnessed in person by the victims’ immediate family members if they wished to attend.
Hasan’s execution is scheduled for Dec 3 at Fort Hood, Texas, where he shot dead 13 people in 2009. It would be the first execution by firing squad carried out by the US military since 1945.
Hegseth said last week that “we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public”, later confirming that the plan was to livestream the execution.