US soldier Bradley Manning could face 136-year sentence later today after he was convicted of most of the 21 charges against him for leaking classified government files to WikiLeaks. He was acquitted of the most serious charge of aiding the enemy.
US soldier Bradley Manning faces life behind bars after a military court found him guilty of multiple counts of violating the espionage act in the WikiLeaks case.
ITV News diplomatic correspondent John Ray has this report from the court martial at Fort Meade, Maryland:
Manning was cleared of the most serious charge of "aiding the enemy", but military judge Colonel Denise Lind judge found him guilty of the biggest leak of classified information in US history.
The prosecution described him as a traitor who had "evil intent".
But WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange called Manning 'a hero' and said his conviction set a "dangerous precedent", adding that Manning's disclosures had helped spark the Arab Spring.
The 25-year-old pleaded guilty to 11 of the charges after Colonel Lind ruled that he could not argue he was acting in the public interest when he released information to WikiLeaks.
Colonel Lind had denied a request by Manning's attorneys to throw out the "aiding the enemy" charge, the most serious of the 21 counts against him.Bradley Manning opted to have his case heard by a judge, rather than a panel of military jurors.
WikiLeaks published the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of documents leaked online, in many cases without omitting personal or logistically sensitive information.
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