By Greg Lacour
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (Reuters) – U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl on Friday was spared prison time for endangering fellow troops when he deserted his post in Afghanistan in 2009, but a military judge ordered he should be dishonorably discharged from the service.
Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban and spent five years under brutal captivity by the insurgent group. He had faced up to life in prison after pleading guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy.
Prosecutors had asked Army Colonel Jeffery Nance to send Bergdahl to prison for 14 years for the hardships and injuries endured by service members who searched for the soldier after he left his combat outpost in Paktika province in June 2009 without permission.
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Defense lawyers had said the 31-year-old Idaho native, who experts testified has several mental health conditions, should be spared confinement.
Bergdahl’s case made him a polarizing figure. He drew withering criticism from political leaders in Washington and fellow soldiers, both for the dangerous efforts to find him and the 2014 Taliban prisoner swap brokered by the Democratic Obama administration that secured his release.
During his successful campaign for the presidency last year, Republican Donald Trump called Bergdahl “a no-good traitor who should have been executed.”
Nance, acting on a defense motion, ruled that Trump’s comments had not influenced him nor affected Bergdahl’s chances of a fair sentence, but said he would consider them a mitigating factor.
Defense attorneys argued at Bergdahl’s sentencing hearing at Fort Bragg in North Carolina that he was a young, hardworking soldier who did not understand the full consequences of his actions when he deserted.
Bergdahl, who has said he wanted to report problems in his unit, apologized in court this week for the suffering he caused his comrades and admitted he had made “a horrible mistake.”
Prosecutors, however, said Bergdahl knew his disappearance would trigger alarm in the war zone.
Prosecutors acknowledged that Bergdahl suffered during his years as a prisoner of the Taliban, but argued that did not diminish the pain of fellow service members who were injured during the futile hunt for him.
(Reporting by Greg Lacour; Writing by Colleen Jenkins)
