No Plea from Bergdahl
Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl leaves a military courthouse Tuesday in Fort Bragg, N.C. Bergdahl was arraigned on charges of desertion and endangering troops stemming from his decision to leave his outpost in Afghanistan in 2009.
The short hearing at Fort Bragg was the first time Sgt. Bergdahl has appeared before a military judge since the Army made a decision to proceed with a military trial.
Sitting at attention in the courtroom, Bergdahl answered military judge Col. Christopher T. Frederick succinctly with, “Yes sir, I do”, when asked whether he understood his options.
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.
He was freed in May 2014 as part of a controversial prisoner exchange involving five Taliban leaders who were being held at the USA detention centre at Guantanamo Bay. Yet General Robert Abrams, head of the US Army Forces Command, eventually referred Bergdahl’s case to a general court-marital.
The 29-year-old, who was held for five years by the Taliban in Afghanistan, deferred entering a plea during the brief court appearance on Tuesday.
Bergdahl attorney Eugene Fidell has said the Army did not follow the advice of a preliminary hearing officer in choosing to pursue a general court-martial. If found guilty of the charges, Bergdahl could face life in prison.
Legal databases and media accounts turn up only a few misbehaviour cases since 2001, when fighting began in Afghanistan, followed by Iraq less than two years later.
Bergdahl’s story is the focus of this season of the popular podcast, “Serial”. In the premiere episode, Bergdahl claimed that he meant to trigger a wide-scale manhunt in leaving his base, but then changed his mind and chose to walk to a forward operating base some 20 miles away from his outpost. He wanted to warn them about what he believed were serious problems with leadership in his unit. You know, I could be, you know, what… “I was capable of being what I appeared to be”, Bergdahl said. “Doing what I did is me saying that I am like…”
“I had this fantastic idea that I was going to prove to the world that I was the real thing”, Bergdahl told the “Zero Dark Thirty” producer during 25 hours of interviews. It was left up in the air for several months if he would be tried in a misdemeanor court, but last week officials determined he would be tried in a general court-martial.
Copyright © The Associated Press.