The live broadcast, announced by the United States, of the execution-style killing of the perpetrator of murders at a military base constitutes a form of “torture,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights denounced today.
The execution of the perpetrator of this massacre, which claimed the lives of 13 people in Texas in 2009, will be broadcast live, announced yesterday, Thursday, an official from the U.S. Department of Defense.
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“As the High Commissioner has emphasized in response to public executions in Afghanistan and Iran, public executions constitute a form of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. Live broadcasting of an execution is equivalent to a public execution and violates the absolute prohibition against torture,” the High Commissioner stated in a message sent to the French Press Agency.
“Failure to respect this prohibition inevitably renders the execution arbitrary by its very nature. This would constitute a violation of the right to life,” it added.
The High Commissioner recalls that, under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, “the absolute prohibition of torture prohibits public executions.”
The execution of Nidal Hassan, an American Muslim of Palestinian descent who opened fire on November 5, 2009, at the medical center of the massive Fort Hood military base, “will be broadcast live,” the official told Agence France-Presse, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A military psychiatrist, Nidal Hasan had opened fire at Fort Hood to prevent soldiers from participating in a war he considered “illegal” in Afghanistan and Iraq. He killed 13 people, 12 of whom were soldiers, wounded dozens, and was described as a “lone wolf” of the jihadist organization Al-Qaeda.
He was wounded by a bullet during an exchange of fire at the base and is now disabled and uses a wheelchair. He was sentenced to death in 2013.
The Pentagon chief emphasized that this will be the first military execution by firing squad since World War II and the killing of Eddie Slovik, who was executed in 1945 as a deserter.
Source: APE-MPE
