URL:http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/30/bradley-manning-trial-verdict-live
Colonel Denise Lind, the military judge presiding over the court
martial of the US soldier, delivered her verdict in curt and pointed
language, writes Ed Pilkington from Fort Meade:
“Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty,” she repeated over and over, as the reality of a prolonged prison sentence for Manning on top of the three years he has already spent in detention dawned.
The one ray of light in an otherwise bleak outcome for the Army private was that he was found not guilty of the single most serious charge against him - that he knowingly “aided the enemy”, in practice al-Qaida, by disclosing information to the WikiLeaks website that in turn made it accessible to all users including enemy groups. Lind’s decision to avoid setting a precedent by applying the swingeing “aiding the enemy” charge to an official leaker will invoke a sigh of relief from news organisations and civil liberties groups who had feared a guilty verdict would send a chill across public interest journalism.
Lind also found Manning not guilty of having leaked an encrypted copy of a video of a US airstrike in the Farah province of Aghanistan in which many civilians died. Manning’s defence team had argued vociferously that he was not the source of this video, though the soldier did admit to later disclosure of an unencrypted version of the video and related documents.
The judge also accepted Manning’s version of several of the key dates in the WikiLeaks disclosures, and took off some of the edge from other less serious charges. But the overriding toughness of the verdict remains: the soldier was found guilty in their entirety of 17 out of the 22 counts against him, and of an amended version of four more.
Once the counts are cumulatively added up, the prospects for the Army private are bleak. Barring reduction of sentence for mitigation, which becomes the subject of another mini-trial dedicated to sentencing that starts tomorrow, he will face a substantial chunk of his adult life in military custody.
The consequences for Manning, and for the wider world of whistleblowing and official leaking in the digital age, will take time to sink in.
Bradley Manning's defense attorney David Coombs and Coomb's wife Tanya Monestier arrive at court for the verdict in Manning's military trial at Fort Meade, Maryland. Photograph: Gary Cameron/Reuters