Bradley Manning suffered while awaiting Wikileaks case, judge says
US Army Private Bradley Manning is escorted as he leaves a military court at the end of the first of a three-day motion hearing June 6, 2012, in Fort Meade, Md.
Spending 23 hours per day – sometimes naked – inside a windowless cell constitutes undo punishment, a US military judge said today during Bradley Manning’s Wikileaks case.
Col. Denise Lind reduced by 112 days any sentence the Army private might receive for leaking confidential documents to the website, The Associated Press reported.
His time in pretrial custody was “more rigorous than necessary” and conditions “became excessive in relation to legitimate government interests,” Lind said, according to the AP.
Manning spent nine months inside a Marine Corps bring at Quantico, Virginia. He was sometimes stripped because military officials deemed him a suicide risk and a threat to others.
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The 25-year-old Manning faces 22 charges and life in prison for sending confidential documents to the Wikileaks website.
His full trial is to begin on March 6.
At the hearing today in Fort Meade, Maryland, his lawyers suggested he didn’t send anything detrimental.
Attorney David Coombs told the judge that Manning’s documents “could not be used to harm the US or advantage any foreign nation,” The Guardian reported.
The defense team had said Manning should receive 10-times credit for his time in Quantico, Politico reported.
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