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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 who leaked thousands of classified documents, has been convicted of espionage but not of aiding the enemy. | |
| Pte Manning, 25, has been found guilty of 20 charges in total, including theft and computer fraud. | |
| He had admitted 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 up to 136 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. | In addition to multiple espionage counts, he was also found guilty of five theft charges, two computer fraud charges and multiple military infractions. |
| Pte Manning stood and faced Judge Colonel Denise Lind as she read the decision. She said she would release detailed written findings at a later date. | |
| 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. | |
| "The government's pursuit of the 'aiding the enemy' charge was a serious overreach of the law, not least because there was no credible evidence of Manning's intent to harm the USA by releasing classified information to WikiLeaks," Amnesty International said in a statement. | |
| 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. |
| 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. | 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. | 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. | The defence characterised him as a naive and young soldier who had become disillusioned during his time in Iraq. |
| In a lengthy statement during a pre-trial hearing in February, Pte Manning said he had leaked the files in order to spark a public debate about US foreign policy and the military. |