Charges against Bowe Bergdahl to go to general court-martial: lawyer

The military charges against U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, a former prisoner of the Taliban in Afghanistan charged with desertion, were referred on Monday for trial by general court-martial, the U.S. Army Forces Command said.

Bergdahl, 29, was charged earlier this year with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of the more serious offense of misbehavior.

The date of the arraignment hearing at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will be announced at a later date, the U.S. Army Forces Command said in a statement on Monday.

U.S. military prosecutors said in September at a preliminary hearing to establish probable cause that Bergdahl, held for five years before being swapped in 2014 for five Taliban leaders, deliberately left his post.

The prosecutors said at the preliminary hearing, held at the military post in San Antonio where Bergdahl has been stationed since his return, that he launched a plan weeks in the making. They said there was sufficient evidence to hold him for trial on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy.

Major General Kenneth Dahl, who led the military's investigation of Bergdahl's disappearance and capture, testified at the hearing in September that Bergdahl was not a Taliban sympathizer and recommended that he serve no prison time. Dahl characterized Bergdahl as an unrealistically idealistic soldier who left his post to report concerns about his unit's leadership to a general at another base.

"I do not believe that there is a jail sentence at the end of this process," said Dahl, who led 22 people in the two-month investigation and interviewed Bergdahl for a day and a half.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by G Crosse and Leslie Adler)