In a statement posted on the organisation's website , WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called the trial "an affront to basic concepts of Western justice. Civil liberties campaigners say Manning's punishment represents a dangerous escalation in the crackdown on government leakers and journalists who write stories about national security based on disclosures that have not been sanctioned by the government.
Manning is one of seven people have been charged under the Espionage Act for leaking classified information under the Obama administration. Another is Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who turned whistleblower, disclosing top-secret details about US surveillance programs.
Snowden, 30, whose disclosures about NSA surveillance tactics were published in the Guardian and Washington Post and have already led to a raft of proposed legislative changes, some of which are backed by the White House, said he fled the US because he does not believe he would receive a fair trial. Manning's sentence may also give a foretaste of what could await Assange, who US prosecutors say communicated directly with Manning around the time he made the leaks.
Assange, 42, has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for more than a year, as part of his efforts to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces allegations of sex crimes against two women — claims he denies. He says he fears he will eventually be extradited to the US, where a grand jury is believed to have indicted him over the publication of classified material.
Meanwhile, a New York Times journalist, James Risen, has been told he faces a possible prison sentence if he does not cooperate with the prosecution of a CIA agent accused of leaks.
Military lawyers specifically urged Lind to jail Manning for the "majority of his remaining life" to deter potential future leakers from passing journalists documents on such a scale. Captain Joe Morrow, a lawyer for the government, told the judge on Monday that is was her responsibility to ensure the military "never see" another leak on the scale of Manning's releases.
Manning's sentence vastly outweighs any previous sentence given to a US leaker, although the nature and scale of Manning's disclosures was unprecedented. I did so out of love for our country and a sense of duty for others.
If you deny my request for a pardon I will serve my time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a heavy price to live in a free society. Mr Coombs also read a statement from the soldier's family, which said they were "saddened and disappointed" by the sentence.
For his own part, the lawyer said he was in tears after the sentence was handed down but that Pte Manning had told him: "I know you did your best. It's going to be OK. When asked about the pardon request, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he was "not going to get ahead" of the process. The soldier's uncle, Kevin Fox, of Haverfordwest, Wales, said the family had expected a harsher sentence.
The verdict and sentence will be reviewed, and possibly reduced, by a military district commander and will be automatically reviewed by the Army Court of Criminal Appeals. Pte Manning may also petition the court for lenience during the appeals process.
On Wednesday, Pfc. Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for releasing hundreds of thousands of classified government documents to the website WikiLeaks in The judge, Army Col.
Denise R. Lind, could have sentenced him to up to 90 years after finding him guilty of 20 crimes, including several violations of the Espionage Act. The year-old Manning, who was also dishonorably discharged, will be eligible for parole after serving one-third of his sentence, minus the three years he already spent in jail and the days of "inhuman" treatment he was judged to have suffered in a Quantico brig.
WikiLeaks, a staunch defender of Manning throughout his trial, seemed optimistic about the sentence:. Significant strategic victory in Bradley Manning case. Bradley Manning now elegible for release in less than 9 years, 4. Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, said Manning's apology was a "forced decision" aimed at reducing his potential jail sentence.
In a statement, he said the apology had been "extorted from him under the overbearing weight of the United States military justice system. The court-martial began three years after Manning was first detained in Iraq for suspicion of having leaked the video of a Apache helicopter attack that killed several Iraqi civilians. He was subsequently charged with the leak of , documents that were a mix of U. The release of the documents has been described as the most extensive leak of classified information in U.
During the nearly two-month court martial, prosecutors presented detailed computer forensics of Manning's computer activity during his deployment to Iraq in late to mid They said the evidence showed that within weeks of his arrival in Baghdad, Manning had begun searching classified military computer networks for materials that were of interest to WikiLeaks.
In their unsuccessful bid to show that Manning had aided the enemy, they said some of the battlefield reports were found on computers belonging to Osama bin Laden. The computers had been seized during the U. Manning's initial detention at the Marine brig at Quantico, Va. Now being held at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. His attorneys said the treatment merited dismissing the case against him because it amounted to cruel-and-unlawful punishment.
After a lengthy pre-trial hearing late last year, judge Lind found there was validity to some of the allegations and reduced any potential prison sentence by days.
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