A US Army analyst suspected of causing the biggest leak of classified information in the country’s history should face a court martial, a military tribunal has said.
Bradley Manning allegedly gave more than 700,000 secret documents to the WikiLeaks whistleblowing website.
Prosecutors say WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange collaborated with the 24-year-old, who is charged on 22 counts, including “aiding the enemy”.
Prosecutors have recommended against the death sentence, the maximum penalty for such an offence.
Defence lawyers say Manning, who was arrested in 2010, was a troubled young soldier who should not have been given access to classified material while he was stationed in Iraq.
The US Army said the head of the tribunal, Lt Col Paul Almanza, had concluded that “reasonable grounds exist to believe that the accused committed the offences alleged”.
His recommendation will be passed up the military command chain.
At an earlier hearing, military prosecutors produced evidence that Manning downloaded and electronically transferred to WikiLeaks nearly half a million sensitive battlefield reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables, and video of a deadly 2007 Army helicopter attack that WikiLeaks published and dubbed “Collateral Murder”.
Manning’s lawyers said others had access to his work computers.
They say he was in emotional turmoil, partly because he was a gay soldier at a time when homosexuals were barred from serving openly in the US armed forces.
Jeff Paterson, a founding member of the Bradley Manning Support Network, said the group hopes to bring thousands of Manning supporters to demonstrate at any court trial.
Source : Orange News