The United Nations has condemned a US decision to livestream the execution of a convicted killer, saying it would amount to torture.

President Donald Trump approved the execution of Nidal Hasan by firing squad on 6 October. The former US Army psychiatrist shot and killed 13 people and wounded 30 others at Fort Hood military base in Texas on 5 November 2009.

US defence officials announced the execution will be broadcast live, though they have not yet revealed the date or platform for the livestream.

“The livestreaming of an execution is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture,” the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights told AFP on Friday.

The UN body said it had made similar statements about public executions in Afghanistan and Iran, describing them as “a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended the firing squad method to Trump. The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place for the execution.

Hasan’s execution will mark the first by the US military since 1961. It will also be the first time the US military has carried out an execution by firing squad since World War II.

The attack was Al-Qaeda-inspired. Hasan opposed US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and had communicated with radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki before the shooting.

The rights group Amnesty International reported that at least 17 public executions took place in 2025 – six in Afghanistan and 11 in Iran.

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