An Afghanistan war veteran arrested on felony “conspiracy” charges a month after he participated in a protest against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) maintains his innocence and is preparing for a jury trial, even as others arrested the same day strike plea agreements to avoid long prison terms, his father said.

Bajun Mavalwalla II – a former army sergeant who survived a roadside bomb blast on a special operations mission in Afghanistan – was charged in July with “conspiracy to impede or injure officers” after joining an anti-ICE protest in Spokane, Washington.

Legal experts have said the case marks an escalation in the Trump administration’s attacks on first amendment rights. Veterans’ groups have decried the charges as “un-American”.

“My son is innocent,” said his father, Bajun Ray Mavalwalla, a retired US army intelligence officer with three Bronze stars earned during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.