Greens Party, Amnesty International call for Australia to protest public US execution of Nidal Hasan
The Albanese government is facing calls to protest a ‘deeply disturbing’ execution in the US that could be livestreamed in Australia.
A leading human rights group is calling on Canberra to formally protest plans to publicly execute a former US Army officer in December.
US War Secretary Pete Hegseth last week vowed that Nidal Hasan, who fatally shot 13 unarmed soldiers in 2009, would face “a firing squad of soldiers” on December 3.
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” he said.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.President Donald Trump at the weekend said he backed the idea, which would be the first ever broadcast execution in US history.
Amnesty International Australia strategy and advocacy manager Kyinzom Dhongdue told NewsWire that the public execution was “deeply disturbing”.
“The suggestion that an execution by firing squad should be livestreamed for public viewing is an appalling disregard for human dignity,” she said.
“Turning a state-sanctioned killing into a public spectacle only compounds the cruelty of the death penalty.”
She said Australia had “a longstanding commitment to the global abolition of the death penalty” and called on the Albanese government to “uphold that commitment by raising its concerns directly with the United States, urging authorities to halt the execution, commute Hasan’s death sentence and abandon plans to broadcast it”.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong did not respond to a request for comment.
All Australian states and territories had abolished the death penalty by 1985, with Western Australia the last jurisdiction to do so.
Parliament passed legislation permanently banning it in 2010.
The call for Canberra to act comes as the Greens demand federal authorities stop the execution from being broadcast in Australia.
“The government must be pre-emptive and warn streaming and social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Meta that very large fines will apply if this state murder is broadcast or replayed at a later date,” Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young wrote in a letter to Communications Minister Anika Wells.
“Inaction on this will jeopardise millions of Australians’ online safety and expose both adults and children to this harmful content.”
But not all are concerned by the execution, with crossbencher Ralph Babet pledging to share “footage of the lawful execution of convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan”.
“(eSafety Commission) if you don’t like it, don’t watch it,” he posted on social media.
“But don’t you dare presume you have the authority to dictate what an elected Australian senator can or cannot publish.
“You are not the arbiters of free speech.
More to come...
Originally published as ‘Deeply disturbing’: Call for Australia to protest public US execution
