Fort Hood shooting rampage suspect appears in court

REUTERS - A military psychiatrist charged with last year’s shooting rampage at Fort Hood Army Base attended a court appearance on Tuesday in a wheelchair, his first public appearance since the incident.

Dressed in an Army uniform, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, who was paralyzed by wounds sustained during the attack, rolled himself into a Fort Hood courtroom where a military judge delayed an evidentiary hearing until Oct. 4.

Hasan, 39, who had exchanged e-mails with an anti-American Muslim figure sympathetic to al Qaeda, is charged with killing 13 people. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

A Muslim born in the United States of immigrant parents, Hasan is charged in the Nov. 5 rampage at the Texas base, which is the world’s biggest military facility.

At Tuesday’s brief hearing, Colonel James Pohl, the hearing officer, asked Hasan a series of questions about whether he understood charges against him and his rights. Each time Hasan replied in a clear voice, “Yes, sir.”

Pohl agreed to postpone an until Oct. 4 an Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent to a grand jury hearing where the evidence against Hasan would be weighed to determine if a trial is warranted.

Hasan was treated at an army hospital and later held in jail.