MILITARY

Top general scheduled to testify at Bergdahl hearing

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, right, arrives with his civilian attorney, Eugene Fidell, for a legal hearing at the courtroom on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016, on Fort Bragg, N.C. Bergdahl, who disappeared in Afghanistan in 2009 and was held by the Taliban for five years, is charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. (Andrew Craft/The Fayetteville Observer via AP) (The Associated Press)

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, center, arrives with his civilian attorney, Eugene Fidell, and military attorney, Lt. Col. Franklin Rosenblatt, for a hearing at the courtroom, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016, on Fort Bragg, N.C. Bergdahl, who disappeared in Afghanistan in 2009 and was held by the Taliban for five years, is charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. (Andrew Craft/The Fayetteville Observer via AP) (The Associated Press)

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, right, arrives with his civilian attorney, Eugene Fidell, for a legal hearing at the courtroom on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016, on Fort Bragg, N.C. Bergdahl, who disappeared in Afghanistan in 2009 and was held by the Taliban for five years, is charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. (Andrew Craft/The Fayetteville Observer via AP) (The Associated Press)

A top Army general is scheduled to testify about why he destroyed letters he received from supporters and critics of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Gen. Robert B. Abrams is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday at a pretrial hearing to answer questions related to a motion seeking to disqualify him from the case.

Abrams is the four-star head of U.S. Army Forces command who decided to send Bergdahl's case to a general court-martial rather than a lower-level tribunal. Abrams has acknowledged that he disposed of letters on the case by sending them to an incinerator.

Bergdahl, who's from Hailey, Idaho, walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and wound up as a captive of the Taliban and its allies until 2014. He faces a court-martial on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy.