A judge is right to force the suspect in an army base shooting to have his beard shaved, a court has heard amid a stand-off which is delaying the man’s trial.
Former army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan has grown a beard since the attack at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009.
Soldiers in the US Army are not allowed to have beards, but his lawyers say his Muslim faith means he will die a sinner if he is clean-shaven.
The court proceedings were postponed last week over the row.
The 41-year-old, a Muslim American who was born to Palestinian parents, is accused of shooting dead 13 people.
His lawyers said that forcibly shaving him – as previously ordered by trial judge Colonel Gregory Gross – would violate his right to religious freedom.
In a document filed on behalf of Colonel Gross, military lawyers said an order to have him shaved was similar to "and no more invasive than" a judge's right to restrain a defendant who is disruptive during a court martial.
Calling for Hasan's appeal to be denied, they told an appeals court the removal of his beard would also allow the trial to proceed without "a distracting and disruptive sideshow featuring an officer-accused flagrantly disrespecting the army, his superiors, and the military judge".
Hasan has already been found guilty of contempt of court five times for refusing to remove his beard. He faces the prospect of soldiers being ordered to shave it for him.
He is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted.
