Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl’s case has been referred to a general court martial, where he could face a life sentence if convicted of misbehavior before the enemy and he could face five years of prison time if convicted of desertion. His platoon leader, Sgt. Evan Buetow, told Fox News a year ago that the day after Bergdahl disappeared, “We did hear over the radio that there was an American looking for someone who spoke English so he could talk to the Taliban”. It comes after Bergdahl broke his silence last week by participating in the popular podcast Serial in which the soldier’s recorded conversations with film producer Mark Boal were aired with Bergdahl’s approval.
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In a statement, Bergdahl’s attorney Eugene Fidell said that he “had hoped the case would not go in this direction”, and that General Abrams “did not follow the advice of the preliminary hearing officer who heard the witnesses”.
Bowe Bergdahl, now facing the possibility of life in prison.
An arraignment date for Bergdahl hasn’t yet been set, but it’s likely his case could dominate headlines in 2016. Bergdahl is now assigned to the Army’s Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston in Texas, the site of his preliminary hearing in September.
He characterised Bergdahl as an unrealistically idealistic soldier who left his post to report concerns about his unit’s leadership to a general at another base.
“There’s an established process whereby the military will both conduct this investigation and consider the results of it, and I don’t want to say anything that could be perceived as influencing that process in any way”, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.
Fidell asked that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump “cease his prejudicial months-long campaign of defamation against our client”. That’s a far more serious penalty than had been recommended by the Army’s investigating officer, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Dahl, who testified at Bergdahl’s preliminary hearing in September that a jail sentence would be “inappropriate”.
The Army has said no soldiers were killed or wounded during the hunt for Bergdahl, but his commanders have said his actions put lives at risk.
Bergdahl, 29, of Hailey, Idaho, walked off his post in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktika province on June 30, 2009.
Taliban militants quickly captured Bergdahl and transferred him to the militant Haqqani network, who moved him to strongholds in neighboring Pakistan. Last week, the Repubicans of the House of Representatives issued a report criticizing President Barack Obama’s handling of the prisoner exchange in May of 2014.
The case would also be inherently hard to prosecute, partly because of the still murky nature of Bergdahl’s intentions and state of mind in leaving in his base in Afghanistan, and because of the years between the alleged crimes and an actual court martial.
The picture that emerges is that of a young man, disgusted by the daily brutality of the occupation, taking drastic measures to try to find some officer who could improve the situation. “Doing what I did was me saying I am like Jason Bourne”.
They said there was sufficient evidence to hold him for trial on charges of desertion and misbehaviour before the enemy. Republicans and some members of Bergdahl’s unit also described the sergeant as a defector, and said that a half-dozen or more U.S. troops had died searching for him.
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“I think the politicisation of everything surrounding this case is very disturbing”, Fidell said.
