TEXAS – U.S. Army Forces Command announced on Monday it has referred charges against U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl to a general court martial.
A court hearing will be set for a later date.
On March 25, 2015, the Army announced that Bergdahl had been charged with two counts under the Uniform Code of Military Justice: one count of “desertion with intent to shirk important or hazardous duty” and one count of “misbehavior before the enemy by endangering the safety of a command, unit or place.”
Bergdahl a United States Army soldier who was held captive by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network in Afghanistan from June 2009 until his release in May 2014.
The circumstances under which Bergdahl went missing and how he was captured by the Taliban have since become subjects of intense media scrutiny.
Bergdahl was released on May 31, 2014, as part of a prisoner exchange for five Taliban members who were being held at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. This exchange and the ceremony announcing it, held in the White House Rose Garden, generated controversy in the United States. On March 25, 2015, the U.S. Army announced that Bergdahl had been charged with one count of desertion and one count of misbehavior before the enemy.
