Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream execution puts US in dubious company

Only Iran and Afghanistan routinely carry out sentences in public, with Saudi Arabia appearing to have ended the practice.

If the US Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, proceeds with plans to livestream the execution of Maj Nidal Hasan, a soldier radicalized to extremist Islam who killed 13 people at a military base in Texas, the United States will join a dubious group of nations that have conducted public executions in recent years. Currently, only two countries systematically carry out capital sentences in public: Iran and Afghanistan.

In 2025, the Taliban authorities executed six individuals, while the regime in Tehran executed eleven, according to Amnesty International. In April of the previous year, the Taliban executed four men accused of murder in three different cities, all shot dead in crowded public sports stadiums. Such public executions were common during the Taliban's rule in the late 1990s, with the group claiming that due process had been followed.

In July, two young men accused of killing policemen were hanged by Iranian authorities in the central square of Isfahan. Human rights monitors have reported approximately 30 public executions in Iran over the last five years, with an increase in frequency following significant unrest earlier this year and ongoing conflicts with the US and Israel. Historically, many hangings in Iran have been conducted using a crane as a makeshift gallows.