the 25 year old was convicted of stealing classified information totaling 700 files among which
were diplomatic cables, southern command and Afghanistan records. He is said to
have leaked the information to Wikileaks which has never accepted or rejected
that he was their source. The military also accused him of jeopardizing Americans,
asserting that similar content had been recovered from Osama bin Laden's
compound.
Prosecution
however, failed to prove that Manning intended to serve al Qaeda the material
and therefore the juror said he did not aid the enemy. In defense manning said
he just wanted to inform the public what the US government was doing.
Mr.
Assange backed him while talking to the media on Tuesday lambasting the
convictions on the 20 counts saying “it was a dangerous precedent and an
example of national security extremism." Assange implied that it would
encourage cover-ups. Assange joined civil rights organizations that also condemned
the convictions and eulogized Manning calling him a hero of free speech
Each
of the convicted charges carries a maximum sentence of 10 years each in Jail. However,
the Judge has the discretion to lighten or tighten the sentence for him. There is even a possibility of him serving
all time concurrently giving him to serve a total of 10 years.
The
former intelligence operative has already been incarcerated for three years.
Manning
was convicted of stealing classified information and videos -- more than 700
U.S. Southern Command records, records pertaining to Afghanistan, State
Department cables and classified Army documents.
Then
he leaked them for publication on the Internet.
Authorities say he delivered three-quarters of a
million pages of classified documents to the secret-sharing site WikiLeaks,
which has never confirmed the soldier was the source of its information
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