US rampage suspect barred from hearing over beard
By Associated Press
Jun 19, 2012 11:25 AM CDT
FILE - The 2007 file photo provided by the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) shows Nidal Malik Hasan when he undertook the Disaster and Military Psychiatry Fellowship program. Hasan is charged in the fatal 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood which killed 13 people and injured...   (Associated Press)

A judge has again barred a U.S. Army psychiatrist charged in a deadly shooting rampage from military court because he still has a beard, which is against Army policy.

Maj. Nidal Hasan was told Tuesday that he couldn't attend any more hearings unless he shaves. He was removed from court and was to watch the proceedings on closed-circuit television.

Hasan faces the death penalty in the 2009 attack that killed 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas, shortly before he was to deploy to Afghanistan.

The judge, Col. Gregory Gross, warned Hasan about the beard earlier this month.

Lead defense attorney Lt. Col. Kris Poppe says Hasan grew the beard as a "deeply sincere" expression of his Islamic faith and because he has a premonition he will die soon.