Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier charged with desertion after he was returned from the Taliban last year in exchange for prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, is seeking to have the officer in charge of deciding his fate removed from the case now that he has been nominated to serve as the new Army chief of staff.
Gen. Mark Milley is responsible for deciding whether to charge Bergdahl criminally for leaving his post in 2009 in Afghanistan. Bergdahl was captured and remained a captive of the Taliban for nearly five years.
In a petition filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces on Friday, Bergdahl’s attorneys argued that Milley will not be able to be objective on whether to charge Bergdahl, since Milley’s appointment is subject to approval by the Senate Armed Services Committee, many of whose members are in favor of charging the soldier.
Bergdahl’s attorneys had requested that Milley recuse himself in May, but Milley refused. Bergdahl’s preliminary hearing on his desertion charges is scheduled for September.
After a one-year cooling off period in Qatar, the travel ban against the five Taliban prisoners was supposed to be lifted on Monday. But Qatar extended the ban amid continued negotiations with the U.S. Critics contend that the Taliban will head back to the battlefield once they’re freed.
