Nidal Hasan, the former U.S. Army officer convicted and sentenced to death for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, has been forcibly shaved.
Hasan, 42, was flown Friday to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where he has been placed on death row.
On Tuesday, Lt. Col. S. Justin Platt, a spokesman for the Army at the Pentagon, said that all inmates at the disciplinary barracks at the Army base must meet military regulations for appearance.
“In keeping with AR 670-1 and AR 190-47, the Army corrections system, inmate Hasan has been shaved,” Platt said, referring to Army regulations that govern soldiers’ appearance.
Hasan, an American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, openly defied those regulations over the course of his recent trial and in the year leading up to it, telling a Fort Hood judge he had grown the beard for religious reasons and after believing his death was imminent.
Military regulations prohibit all active-duty soldiers from growing facial hair beyond a closely cropped mustache. The Army has granted religious exceptions for some Sikhs and Orthodox Jews; however, none have ever been granted to a Muslim.
The Army also allows for closely cropped facial hair for soldiers who suffer from razor bumps.
Hasan first appeared in court with a beard in 2012. It drew ire from the then-presiding judge in his capital murder case, leading to the judge banning him from the court and holding him in contempt several times.
Ultimately, an appeals court ousted the judge, Col. Gregory Gross, from the case after it ruled his handling of the situation created an antagonistic relationship between Gross and Hasan, and the colonel may have shown bias.
It led to a year delay in Hasan’s case, which was completed nearly four years after the Nov. 5, 2009, shooting on post that left 13 dead and 31 injured.
A jury of 13 Army officers sentenced Hasan to death Aug. 28.