US President Donald Trump has approved the execution of former Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting in Texas.
The decision could pave the way for the first execution by the US military in more than six decades if carried out.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the approval on Monday, saying Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had recommended the firing squad execution and Trump had authorised it.
“Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended — and President Donald J. Trump has approved — death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan,” Parnell said.
He added that the Secretary of the Army would determine the time and location of the execution.
Hasan, who was an Army psychiatrist at the time of the attack, was convicted by a military jury in 2013 on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.
The November 5, 2009 attack occurred at Fort Hood, where soldiers were being processed for deployment. Hasan opened fire, killing 13 people and injuring 32 others.
He was sentenced to death following the military trial.
The presidential approval sets the execution process in motion, but no date has been announced.
If the sentence is carried out, Hasan would become the first person executed by the US military since 1961, when the Army put convicted murderer John A. Bennett to death.
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