Backers of Pfc. Bradley Manning plan to converge on Fort Meade, Md., Tuesday for his court-martial verdict for releasing 700,000 secret documents to WikiLeaks.
The Free Bradley Manning supporters scheduled a 90-minute vigil at the Fort Meade main gate starting at 7 a.m., followed by a procession to the military courtroom ahead of the 1 p.m. expected reading of the verdict.
“Help us show Bradley we care by filling the courtroom,” the group’s website said.
Manning faces 22 charges in the case, including “aiding the enemy,” which carries a life-imprisonment sentence. That charge had not been brought in a leak case until this one.
The government argued providing defense-related information to an entity that published it for the world to see constituted aiding the enemy because the world includes adversaries such as al-Qaida who could read the documents online.
Manning, 25, pleaded guilty Feb. 28 to 10 of the lesser charges for being WikiLeaks’ source for the material, which included videos of a 2007 Baghdad airstrike and a 2009 airstrike in Afghanistan in which civilians were killed. The leaked information also included 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables and 500,000 Army reports that came to be known as the Iraq War logs and Afghan War logs.
The disclosures were the largest set of restricted documents ever leaked to the public — much of it published by WikiLeaks or its media partners between April and November 2010.
The military judge in the case, Col. Denise Lind, accepted Manning’s guilty pleas, which carry up to 20 years in prison.
But despite the pleas, the government decided to press forward with a trial on the more serious charges, including aiding the enemy and Espionage Act violations.
His court-martial began June 3 and wrapped up with closing arguments last week.
The prosecution portrayed Manning as an “anarchist” and a traitor who wanted to “make a splash,” knowing the leaked documents would end up in the hands of al-Qaida.
His defense lawyer portrayed him as a naive but well-intentioned humanistic soldier who wanted the released documents to spark debate about U.S. foreign policy and bring about change.
Defense attorney David Coombs said Manning was selective about which databases he released to avoid causing harm.
Lind said Monday afternoon she had reached a verdict and would likely announce it at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Manning had requested a trial by a military judge instead of by a military jury.
Before beginning her deliberations, Lind said the trial’s sentencing phase would begin Wednesday.
Coombs said if Manning is convicted of aiding the enemy, he will appeal to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, which reviews certain court-martial convictions. After that would be the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, composed of five civilian judges appointed by the U.S. president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Coombs said he believes Manning’s case could end up appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Manning supporters said Monday. UPI
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Republished from: Press TV