United States: Who is Nidal Hasan, the condemned man whose execution is to be broadcast live?

Nidal Hasan, a former military psychiatrist, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad in the United States this December. Sentenced to death in 2013 after being found guilty of a shooting at a military base, his execution could be broadcast live.

A historic first. This December, Nidal Hasan will be the subject of the first military execution and will therefore become the first man killed by the American army since 1961. The President of the United States, Donald Trump , gave his approval for the former military psychiatrist to be put to death by firing squad.

The War Department later confirmed that the execution would be broadcast live online. A decision that Donald Trump did not fully endorse: "They're making a decision, but he will be executed by firing squad."

"Dressed in a military uniform and armed with an automatic pistol as well as another weapon, Major Hasan, a balding man with a round face and thick eyebrows, fired indiscriminately into a crowded medical center," the New York Times reported on the day of the shooting.

13 dead and more than 30 injured

He ultimately used only one of his pistols, which was equipped with a laser sight for better aiming. Before opening fire, he shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is great). The former military psychiatrist "shot the soldiers in the back as they lay wounded on the ground, covering their faces with their hands or arms," the New York newspaper reported.

The 56-year-old man also reportedly shot "21-year-old soldier Francheska Velez, who was pregnant with her first child." In total, 13 people lost their lives in the shooting: 12 soldiers and one medic. Thirty others were wounded.

Shot in the spine during an exchange of gunfire, he is now partially paralyzed and uses a wheelchair. Several investigators have looked into the psychiatrist's past. According to them, he became radicalized in the years leading up to the shooting.

Born to Palestinian parents in 1970, he studied at Virginia Tech before starting military medical school in 1997. A few months before the attack, Nidal Hasan had exchanged about fifteen emails with Anwar al-Awlaki, an American imam who was part of the Al-Qaeda network.

In late 2008, he asked her whether American soldiers who killed others in the name of Islam were considered "waging Jihad" and whether they would become "martyrs" upon dying. He stated that he wished he had died in the attack and become a martyr. "I am a paraplegic and I could spend the rest of my life in prison. But if I die by lethal injection, I will still be a martyr," he told the psychiatric commission.