Nidal Hasan's beard shaved off by force

The army psychiatrist sentenced to death for the Fort Hood shooting rampage has been forcibly shaved, an army spokesman has said.

Major Nidal Hasan began growing a beard after the November 2009 shooting that left 13 dead and 30 wounded. The beard prompted delays to his court martial because it violated army grooming regulations. He was convicted of all charges in August at his court-martial at the central Texas army post and sentenced to death.

Hasan, 42, who was born in America, is an inmate of the US detention barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, home to the military death row. Lieutenant Colonel S Justin Platt, an army spokesman, said in a statement on Tuesday that Hasan had been shaved. He did not specify when or provide details.

Officials at Fort Leavenworth previously had said Hasan would be subject to army regulations.

Hasan dispensed with all criminal defence counsel and represented himself at his trial.

Hasan said he grew the beard because his Muslim faith required it and was not meant as a show of disrespect. However, Colonel Gregory Gross, the original judge presiding over Hasan's court martial, ordered Hasan to be clean-shaven or be forcibly shaved before his trial.

The dispute over that decision led to appeals that delayed the trial by more than three months before the appeals court ousted the judge. The appeals court ruled that Gross did not appear impartial while presiding over Hasan's case and that the command, not a judge, was responsible for enforcing military grooming standards.

Colonel Tara Osborn, assigned to replace Gross as the judge presiding over the case, allowed Hasan to keep the beard for the course of the trial. She said she would not hold the breach of grooming regulations against him but the military jurors might.