By contrast, statistics show the U.S. Army prosecuted about 1,900 desertion cases between 2001 and the end of 2014.
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Berghdal, who was captured by the Taliban after he left his post in Afghanistan back in June 2009, was charged in March with desertion and a misbehavior before the enemy – charges that carry a potential life sentence.
Decision details: Fort Bragg’s head of Army Forces Command, General Robert B. Abrams, tendered the court-martial decision, which, as the New York Times reported, qualifies Bergdahl for “a far more serious penalty than had been recommended by the Army’s own investigating officer, who had testified that a jail sentence would be ‘inappropriate'”.
Bergdahl’s civilian defense lawyer, Eugene Fidell, said in a statement Monday that the decision is against “the advice of the preliminary hearing officer who heard the witnesses”.
US Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held for almost five years by Afghan militants, was handed over to US Special Operations forces in Afghanistan on May 31, 2014 in a swap for five Taliban detainees.
The White House held a Rose Garden ceremony with Bergdahl’s parents after the soldier’s release, but the deal came under immediate criticism when National Security Advisor Susan Rice said Bergdahl served with “honor and distinction”.
During the preliminary hearing into the charges, Lt. Col. Mark Visger, recommended that the case be referred to a “special court martial”, which is limited to imposing a one-year confinement.
The entire next season of Serial, the most downloaded podcast in the medium’s history and led by This American Life alum Sarah Koenig, will be devoted to Bergdahl’s story.
Some Pentagon and Obama administration officials argued that Bergdahl suffered enough during his Taliban captivity, while critics in Congress and the Army said an aggressive prosecution was needed to demonstrate the seriousness of desertion.
“We again ask that Donald Trump cease his prejudicial months-long campaign of defamation against our client”, Fidell said in a statement. Other soldiers in Sgt. Bergdahl’s unit did not see the same problems with leadership that he did, Gen. Dahl said. Hood and deputy legal counsel to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says because of Bergdahl’s lawyer’s successes in convincing the hearing officer to go for the lesser charge, he might be better off requesting his court martial be heard by a judge and not by a ‘panel, ‘ as the UCMJ calls the jury. The presidential candidate Donald Trump has called the sergeant a “traitor” who should be executed.
For a time, it looked as if Bergdahl’s case was just too ambiguous for the military to successfully prosecute before a general courts martial.
Bergdahl’s case has generated massive controversy in the United States after it emerged he walked out of his unit willingly, prompting a massive manhunt, and because of the circumstances of his release.
Sgt. Bergdahl said on a “Serial” episode released last week that within 20 minutes of him leaving his base, Observation Post Mest-Malak, with plans to go to the larger Forward Operating Base Sharana, he had second thoughts. “Doing what I did was me saying I am like Jason Bourne”.
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The case against Bergdahl is likely to remain a staple of attacks by Republicans, who say it emphasizes President Obama’s weakness on foreign policy.
