O ne hundred fifty four years: The amount of time whistleblower Bradley Manning could spend behind bars. His espionage trial begins later today in the US, after his arrest in 2010, which saw him charged with aiding the enemy after he leaked thousands of classified documents online.
As RT’s Marina Portnaya reports – his court martial process begins at a time when the US is accused of being anything but truthful or transparent.
Court-martial trial for Bradley Manning over WikiLeaks
The court-martial of Private first class Bradley Manning began in Ft. Meade, Maryland this week and is slated to run throughout the summer. Manning, 25, could be sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars if convicted of aiding the enemy, the most serious of the more than 20 counts he’s been charged with by Army prosecutors.
US authorities arrested Manning in May 2010 and accused him of sending hundreds of thousands of sensitive government files to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
Earlier this year Manning admitted to sharing the documents, including State Department diplomatic cables and military war logs, and pleaded guilty to a number of lesser counts carrying a maximum sentence of only 20 years.
Manning trial exposes attack on press freedom
Prosecutors say those files benefited the operations of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, however, and are asking for life in prison.
Dozens of witnesses will be called during the trial, including a handful of military personnel whose testimonies will be conducted behind closed doors to protect the sensitive nature pertaining to Manning’s alleged crimes.
Pretrial hearings in the case have been conducted off and on at Ft. Meade since late 2011, but Manning himself has only had the opportunity to address the court at length on a few occasions, including in February when he testified to leaking the documents.
Video: Collateral Murder – Wikileaks – Iraq
RF/RT
mehr Nachrichten zum Thema
→ Bill Keller von der New York Times verunglimpft Bradley Manning, 28.03.2013
→ Bradley Manning fulfilled moral duty, conscience of US on trial, 14.03.2013
→ Truth on Trial: Manning did amazing service to people, 01.03.2013
→ Die Schandtat der Anklage gegen Bradley Manning wegen “Feindbegünstigung”, 11.01.2013
→ Wikileaks ruft Grossbritannien zur Einhaltung internationalen Rechts auf, 18.08.2012
→ Weak-a-Link: Manning trial warning for whistleblowers?, 23.02.2012
→ CrossTalk: Bradley Manning’s Trials, 17.12.2011
→ Wikileaks: Video US-Massaker an Reportern, Zivilisten und Helfern, 06.04.2010
