Australian premier calls US plan to livestream execution ‘abhorrent’

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday called the proposed livestream of a US firing squad execution "abhorrent."

He told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that anyone broadcasting it would damage their reputation and that his government would do what it could to prevent Australians from seeing it.

"These things are not as simple as turning off a light switch and we will do what we can to shut it down," Albanese said.

"I have a very strong personal view coming from my own convictions … I find it abhorrent that anyone would want to watch something like this," he added.

Albanese's remarks came after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said last week that Nidal Hasan, who was sentenced to death for killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, would be executed by firing squad on Dec. 3 at the same Army base.

Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted in 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder and has since been held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

The Pentagon announced Monday that President Donald Trump had approved the recommendation.