Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the military veteran and POW on trial for desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, has feared physical danger and retribution from fellow veterans and active duty troops since returning to the United States. According to his lawyer, anger and hatred against Bergdahl has run so rampant that he might not get a fair trial.

“In short, it has been ‘open season’ on Sgt. Bergdahl,” wrote Eugene Fidell, a military law veteran and former president of the National Institute of Military Justice. “His immediate commander believes he is in physical danger, and therefore has required since last year that he be accompanied by NCOs [non-commissioned officers] whenever he leaves Fort Sam Houston.”

As Bergdahl can attest, abandoning your unit and betraying your country is a surefire way to get on the military community’s bad side. Too many have sacrificed life and limb to keep the United States safe to give a traitor a free pass. However, the details surrounding Bergdahl’s abandonment of his camp and imprisonment with the Taliban remain murky, and its uncertain whether Bergdahl actually committed any crime more serious than misbehavior before the enemy.

Despite little evidence condemning or acquitting his actions, Bergdahl is being put on trial by the media and social media users who believe wholeheartedly that he betrayed the United States. Even his own war buddies and superiors have appeared on the news to claim that Bergdahl “left our organization and went over to the other side.”

“There is increasingly strong reason to doubt whether SGT Bergdahl can receive a fair trial given the prolonged barrage of opprobrium that has been heaped on him over the last year,” Fidell wrote in a memo to the Army.

The Army responded by pointing out that Maj. Nidal Hasan received a fair trial, and he actually killed a dozen service members and civilians at Fort Hood.