UN calls US plans to livestream execution ‘abhorrent’

The United Nations on Friday called US plans to livestream 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 December 3 at the same sprawling Texas base where Hasan opened fire with a handgun in a medical facility.