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| Bradley Manning faces life in prison |
Bradley
Manning, the man accused of making public sensitive military and diplomatic
information in the US’ largest such leak and thus harming US national security,
now faces a court-martial.
The US Army
Military District of Washington announced on Friday that the US army has
ordered a court-martial for Bradley Manning. Manning is charged with passing on
over 700,000 classified documents and combat video to the whistle-blowing
website WikiLeaks when serving as a low-ranking intelligence analyst. It was the
largest leak of secret information in US history.
The
presiding judge, who is yet to be appointed, will set a trial date.
Manning,
24, faces 22 charges, including aiding the enemy, wrongfully causing
intelligence to be published on the Internet and theft of public property.
While
aiding the enemy is an offense that could carry the death penalty, the
prosecution has said it intends to seek a maximum of life in prison for
Manning.
At a
preliminary hearing at Fort Meade, Maryland, in December, military prosecutors
presented evidence that Manning downloaded sensitive material, including
battlefield reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, and transferred it to WikiLeaks.
The evidence provided also showed that he had leaked diplomatic cables as well
as a video of a 2007 army helicopter attack on civilians, which WikiLeaks
titled “Collateral Murder” and made available to the public.
The
prosecution also produced evidence of online chats from Manning's computer
which allegedly prove collaboration between him and WikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange, who is being investigated by US federal prosecutors for allegedly
facilitating the disclosures.
His defense
claimed Manning, as a serving homosexual at a time when being openly gay was
not allowed in the US military, had been under emotional duress and should not
have been granted access to such sensitive information.
The Bradley
Manning Support Network issued a statement of Friday calling his prosecution
“fundamentally unjust.”
“This
administration owes all Americans an honest explanation for their extraordinary
retaliation against Bradley Manning,” said Jeff Paterson, a lead organizer of
the group.
sb/msh (AP, Reuters,
dpa)
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