Charges against Bergdahl referred to trial by court-martial

U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Berghdal is pictured in this undated handout photo provided by the U.S. Army and received by Reuters on May 31, 2014. In the failed motion, the defense presented at least 18 instances where Trump had made derogatory comments about Bergdahl, including that the sergeant was a “dirty rotten traitor” who “went to the other side”.

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”. “And the way that this – the way that Sgt. Bergdahl was rescued, I think is a testament to the president’s commitment to that principle”.

An arraignment hearing at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will be scheduled at a later date, the Army said in a statement.

Abrams’ order was a surprise because the Army lawyer who presided over a preliminary hearing in San Antonio last September recommended that Bergdahl face a lower-level court-martial reserved for misdemeanor-level offenses in the military justice system, and that he be spared any jail time.

The decision to court-martial Bergdahl is likely to reignite the politically charged debate over whether the Obama administration erred by agreeing to free five Taliban prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay to win the soldier’s release.

The 29-year-old was handed back to the Americans in May last year after he was captured by the Taliban who later exchanged him for alleged members of the terror group.

Bergdahl’s case became a high-profile political football nearly as soon as news of his release broke.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will face charges of desertion and misbehavior in front of the enemy at a court-martial trial, says a top Army commander Monday.

Bergdahl was a private when he walked off Observation Post Mest in Paktika Province on June 30, 2009.

Defense counsel Eugene Fidell said in a statement, “I thought that the Article 32 proceeding had shown probable cause for a one-day AWOL (unauthorized leave) and that was it”, he said.

“We again ask that Donald Trump cease his prejudicial months-long campaign of defamation against our client”, said Mr Fidell. But that welcome soon soured when his colleagues began to accuse him of deliberately leaving them.

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. A military expert who debriefed Bergdahl testified at the hearing that the soldier’s five years of captivity with the Taliban were the worst a USA prisoner of war has suffered in 60 years. And he wanted to prove himself as a real-life action hero, like someone out of a movie. Bergdahl recounts. “A person asked me: ‘Why does it hurt?”

“There’s times when I’d wake up and it’s just so dark, like I would wake up not even remembering what I was”, he said.