The general in charge of the original search for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl after his 2009 disappearance does not believe he should be punished.

Maj. Gen. Kenneth R. Dahl interviewed 57 people for 59 days to find out what happened to Bowe Bergdahl in 2009. He even spent a day and a half with the man to try and get to the bottom of what happened that day in the desert. When Dahl took the stand at Bergdahl’s preliminary hearing, he told the court that while Bergdahl definitely enlisted in the military with unrealistic and perhaps delusional expectations, he should not be thrown in the jail for his crime.

“I do not believe there is a jail sentence at the end of this procedure,” Dahl said. “I think it would be inappropriate.”

Dahl’s statement of support for Bergdahl is a big deal because it was the general’s 2009 investigation that forms the very foundation of the case. If the military decides to pursue a case against Bergdahl, it would have to go up against the very man who build the case in the first place.

On the stand, Dahl testified that he found no proof that anyone died searching for Bergdahl, nor that he believed the sergeant intentionally deserted his post. Dahl explained to the court that the sergeant was disappointed that military life didn’t live up to his fantasies, and Bergdahl truly believed it was his unit that was flawed, not his perceptions of the military. His motivation to report leadership issues to the next base was thus “genuine.”

Dahl also reported that he “did not find any evidence to corroborate the reporting that Bergdahl was … sympathetic to the Taliban.”

If the courts disagree with Dahl and convict Bergdahl of desertion, he could get five years in federal prison for desertion and a life sentence for misbehavior before the enemy.