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Bradley Manning guilty of espionage in Wikileaks case | Bradley Manning guilty of espionage in Wikileaks case |
(35 minutes later) | |
Bradley Manning, the US Army private accused of leaking thousands of classified documents, has been found guilty of espionage but not guilty of aiding the enemy. | |
Pte Manning, 25, has been found guilty of 20 charges in total. | Pte Manning, 25, has been found guilty of 20 charges in total. |
He had acknowledged leaking the documents to anti-secrecy organisation Wikileaks but said he did so to spark a debate on US foreign policy. | He had acknowledged leaking the documents to anti-secrecy organisation Wikileaks but said he did so to spark a debate on US foreign policy. |
The leak is considered the largest ever of secret US government files. | The leak is considered the largest ever of secret US government files. |
He faces a maximum sentence of more than 100 years. His sentencing hearing is set to begin on Wednesday. | He faces a maximum sentence of more than 100 years. His sentencing hearing is set to begin on Wednesday. |
In addition to multiple espionage counts, he was also found guilty of five theft charges, two computer fraud charges and multiple military infractions. | |
Among the items sent to Wikileaks by Pte Manning was graphic footage of an Apache helicopter attack in 2007 that killed a dozen people in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, including a Reuters photographer. | Among the items sent to Wikileaks by Pte Manning was graphic footage of an Apache helicopter attack in 2007 that killed a dozen people in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, including a Reuters photographer. |
The documents also included 470,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports and 250,000 secure state department cables between Washington and embassies around the world. | The documents also included 470,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports and 250,000 secure state department cables between Washington and embassies around the world. |
Being found guilty of aiding the enemy could have had serious implications for people leaking documents in the future, says the BBC's North America editor, Mark Mardell. | |
Pte Manning, an intelligence analyst, was arrested in Iraq in May 2010. He spent weeks in a cell at Camp Arifjan, a US Army installation in Kuwait, before being transferred to the US. | |
During the court martial, prosecutors argued Pte Manning systematically harvested hundreds of thousands of classified documents in order to gain notoriety. | |
The defence characterised him as a naive and young soldier who had become disillusioned during his time in Iraq. |