Bergdahl arraigned on desertion charge

He also did not indicate whether he wants to face a court-martial with a jury or one with just a judge, The Associated Press reports. He’ll next appear in court at Fort Bragg on January 12 before Col. Jeffery R. Nance, the judge assigned to proceed over Bergdahl’s case. Wearing a formal Army dress uniform, Bergdahl quietly conferred with Rosenblatt before and after the hearing.

The 29-year-old soldier appeared before a military tribunal at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to be formally arraigned on two charges.

If convicted on a charge of desertion, Bergdahl could serve up to five years in prison, receive a dishonorable discharge, lose his rank and forfeit all pay.

Bergdahl reportedly deserted his unit in Afghanistan in 2009, and he was held captive by the Taliban for five years.

The Taliban captured Bergdahl shortly after he left the base and held him until he was released in a prisoner exchange on May 31, 2014. Bergdahl has defended his actions, alleging that he walked off base in order to bring attention to leadership issues that he felt were putting his unit in danger.

Bergdahl’s lawyer, Eugene Fidell, has said the army did not follow the advice of a preliminary hearing officer in choosing to pursue a general court-martial over a special court-martial, which is a misdemeanour-level forum. “Let’s keep our options open, ‘” he said.

But General Robert Abrams, the head of U.S. Army Forces Command, ultimately made a decision to refer the case to a general court martial.

Corn said he would not be surprised if a panel decides Bergdahl should not go to prison for his alleged military crimes. Bergdahl’s case has gained renewed interest as the subject of the second season of the popular investigative journalism podcast Serial,.

“I was trying to prove to myself, I was trying to prove to the world, to anybody who used to know me…” “I do not believe there is a jail sentence at the end of this process”, said Major General Kenneth Dahl. “Doing what I did is me saying that I am like…”

But Bergdahl’s disappearance and the possibility that he might face light punishment had angered many in the military, who say his fellow soldiers took considerable risks to search for him.