A US soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers is expected to plead guilty in return for escaping the death penalty, when he appears before a military tribunal on Wednesday.
Sergeant Robert Bales faces charges including 16 counts of murder, six of attempted murder and seven of assault over the massacre in southern Afghanistan in March last year.
The 39-year-old will appear at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state to enter his plea over the killings, which further strained already tense US-Afghan ties.
Seventeen of the 22 victims were women or children and almost all were shot in the head. Prosecutors called in November for him to face the death penalty, setting a provisional date for court-martial in September.
His lawyer John Browne announced last week that he had reached “an agreement with the military to take the death penalty off the table if [Bales] he will plead” guilty.
Asked if Bales was sorry, Browne said: “Absolutely. And I think that will become clear as the process goes forward. He’s very relieved that the death penalty is not on the table.”
“And then he’ll have a sentencing trial in September to determine whether he can get life with parole or whether he will get life without parole,” Browne said in video interview.