A U.S. Army soldier accused of an Afghan village massacre is due to appear in a military courtroom Monday, where prosecutors will for the first time lay out their case against him.
Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, who is 39 years old and the father of two, is alleged to have walked out of his southern Afghanistan military base under the cover of darkness March 11, gunning down 16 people, including nine children, in nearby villages. Some of the bodies were set afire.
U.S. forces have paid compensation to families of the dead and to those wounded in the attack.
The preliminary hearing Monday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in (the northwestern U.S. state of )) Washington is an Article 32 hearing designed to determine if Bales should face a court martial.
Relatives of the victims and witnesses are expected to testify via videolink from southern Afghanistan.
Bales could face the death penalty if convicted of the shootings. The U.S. military has not executed a service member in five decades.