BREAKING NEWS

US WikiLeaks soldier Manning to learn his fate on Wednesday

By REUTERS

AUGUST 21, 2013 12:03

FORT MEADE, Md. - Bradley Manning, the US soldier convicted of the biggest breach of classified data in the nation's history, will be told on Wednesday how much of his life will be spent in a military prison.

The 25-year-old private first class could face up to 90 years for turning over more than 700,000 classified files, battlefield videos and diplomatic cables to the pro-transparency website WikiLeaks, in a case that has commanded international attention since 2010.

The judge hearing Manning's court-martial, Colonel Denise Lind, is due to read his sentence at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT). Prosecutors have asked for 60 years, while defense attorneys this week pleaded with Lind not to "rob him of his youth."

Manning was working as a low-level intelligence analyst in Baghdad when he handed over the documents, catapulting WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, into the international spotlight.

In July, Lind found Manning guilty of 20 criminal counts including espionage and theft, but not of aiding the enemy, the most serious charge, which carried a possible sentence of life in prison without parole.

The classified material that shocked many around the world included a 2007 gunsight video of a US Apache helicopter firing at suspected insurgents in Baghdad. Among the dozen fatalities were two Reuters news staff, and WikiLeaks dubbed the footage "Collateral Murder."

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