Martyrdom hope of soldier in Fort Hood shooting rampage

The US Army psychiatrist on trial over the 2009 shooting rampage at the Fort Hood military base told mental health experts after the attack that he “would still be a martyr” if convicted and executed, documents reveal.

By The Newsroom

Published 14th Aug 2013, 20:10 BST

The remarks by Major Nidal Hasan in 2010, published for the first time, come as military lawyers ordered to help him during his trial insist that he wants to be sentenced to death.

Hasan told a panel of experts that he wished he had been killed in the attack because it would have meant God had chosen him for martyrdom, according to the documents.

The American-born Muslim was left paralysed from the waist down after Fort Hood police officers ended the rampage by shooting him in the back.

“I’m paraplegic and could be in jail for the rest of my life,” Hasan told the panel, according to the documents. “However, if I died by lethal injection, I would still be a martyr.”

The documents are part of a report that concluded Hasan was fit to stand trial. The statements were made in 2010, a year after the attack.

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