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.