Hegseth: Firing squad execution of US military base shooter will be 'public'

United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the execution of a former US Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood military base in Texas will be publicly available to watch, Report informs via Al Jazeera.

In an interview with the media outlet Real America's Voice on Thursday, Hegseth was asked about President Donald Trump's recent order to use a firing squad to execute Nidal Hasan, who was convicted of the 2009 shooting.

The secretary said he approved of the decision, calling it a "no-brainer".

"We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public," Hegseth told interviewer Jack Posobiec. "Because people need to understand that there are serious consequences for these types of things."

Hegseth added that the execution would take place at Fort Hood on December 3 at 1 pm US Central Time (19:00 GMT), the same time that the 2009 shooting took place.

Hasan was sentenced to death in August 2013 after a military jury found him guilty of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted murder for the shooting.