Fort Meade, Maryland: US soldier Bradley Manning was sentenced on Wednesday to 35 years in prison for giving hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, the largest such leak in the country’s history.
In a brief hearing, the military judge didn’t offer any explanation for the sentence.
The closely-watched case has seen the 25-year-old called both a whistleblower and a traitor.
Prosecutors wanted at least a 60-year prison sentence, saying it would dissuade other soldiers from following in Manning’s footsteps. The defence suggested a prison term of no more than 25 years so that Manning could rebuild his life.
Manning leaked more than 700,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports and State Department diplomatic cables in 2010 while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq.
Offences
He was convicted last month of 20 offences, including six Espionage Act violations, five theft counts and computer fraud. Prosecutors were unable to prove that he aided the enemy, a crime punishable by life in prison.
Manning has apologised and said he wanted to provoke a debate on the country’s military and diplomatic actions. “I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people,” he said last week.
His defence team said he was under severe mental pressure as a young man struggling with gender identity issues at a time when openly gay people were not allowed to serve in the military.
Prosecutors said the leaks endangered the lives of US intelligence sources and prompted several ambassadors to be recalled, reassigned or expelled.
Prosecutors requested a far longer prison term than other soldiers have received in recent decades for sharing government secrets.
Albert T. Sombolay got a 34-year-sentence in 1991 for giving a Jordanian intelligence agent information on the build-up for the first Iraq war, plus other documents and samples of US Army chemical protection equipment. Clayton Lonetree, the only Marine ever convicted of espionage, was given a 30-year sentence, later reduced to 15 years, for giving the Soviet KGB the identities of US CIA agents and the floor plans of the embassies in Moscow and Vienna in the early 1980s.
Presidential pardon
Amnesty International and the Bradley Manning Support Network have announced an online petition asking President Barack Obama to pardon Manning.
Military prisoners can earn up to 120 days a year off their sentence for good behaviour and job performance, but they must serve at least one-third of any prison sentence before they can become eligible for parole.
Manning will get credit for about 3 1/2 years of pre-trial confinement, including 112 days for being illegally punished by harsh conditions at a Marine Corps brig. His lawyers asserted he was locked up alone for at least 23 hours a day, forced to sleep naked for several nights and required to stand naked at attention one morning.
Manning was arrested in Iraq in 2010 and has been in military custody since.
The most notorious breach was a video and audio file, dubbed ‘Collateral Murder’ by WikiLeaks, showing graphic cockpit footage of two US Apache attack helicopters opening fire and killing 12 people in Baghdad in 2007.
Manning, a hero to supporters who regard him as a whistleblower who lifted the lid on America’s foreign policy, was found guilty of 20 of the 22 charges levelled against him.
Manning also apologised. “I’m sorry that my actions have hurt people and have hurt the United States,” he told US military judge Colonel Denise Lind last week. “I want to go forward. I understand I must pay the price,” Manning said.
Judge Lind has said that Manning will have 1,293 days removed from his eventual sentence, given his time in custody so far plus credit for a period spent in harsh conditions at the US Marines Corps brig at Quantico, Virginia.
