Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl arraigned in court

He deferred the decision on his plea and the kind of jury.

Bergdahl, dressed in his military uniform, sat straight up and looked forward for most of the hearing.

The military officer who headed the investigation testified in September he believed Bergdahl should not face prison time.

“The accused wishes to defer for reflection”, said Lt. Col. Franklin Rosenblatt, Bergdahl’s lawyer, according to a Reuters report.

The hearing is the first step in Bergdahl’s prosecution before a general courts martial.

He said little beyond answering “yes” and “no” to questions about whether he understood his rights and the court proceedings.

The next scheduled hearing is set for January 12 at Fort Bragg. Bergdahl is charged with misbehavior before the enemy and desertion, which carry a life sentence and maximum five-year sentence, respectively. If convicted, he could get life in prison.

The charges stem from his disappearance in Afghanistan in 2009, when Bergdahl walked off a base and was held by the Taliban for five years.

Then, in May 2014 President Obama unexpectedly announced Bergdahl had been released as part of a high-stakes prisoner exchange with the Taliban. Bergdahl was returned to the U.S. in exchange for five detainees being held at Guantánamo Bay.

Three weeks after he was captured by the Taliban, the group released a 28-minute video that shows Bergdahl pleading for his release. But I wanted to prove that I was that….

“I had this fantastic idea that I was going to prove to the world that I was the real thing”, Bergdahl said in the interview.

He said he was spotted by six men armed with AK-47s and travelling on motorcycles. “I was capable of being what I appeared to be”, Bergdahl said. I could be what it is that every… you know, all those guys out there who go to the movies and watch those movies, they all want to be that.

“The time deprivation – too much light or too much darkness, and too much randomness – just wears away at you and just drives your nerves into the ground”, Bergdahl said.

Earlier this month, head of the Army Forces Command Gen. Robert B. Abrams ordered that Bergdahl face a court-martial for desertion.