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Army whistleblower Pfc. Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday for releasing a trove of government and military documents to WikiLeaks.
Judge Denise Lind, an Army colonel, delivered the sentence that, while much shorter than the 60 years sought by prosecutors, is unprecedented for a media leak, the Brennan Center for Justice stated.
He will also be dishonorably discharged, have his rank reduced and will forfeit pay. He is eligible for parole after serving one-third of his sentence.
The 25-year-old has already spent over 1200 days in confinement, which will be taken off his sentence. That time includes 112 days taken off for the torture he endured under months of solitary confinement.
Last month, Manning was convicted of 20 charges, seen by many as a sign of the administration’s war on whistleblowers and a ‘dangerous precedent’ for WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
At the end of February, in pre-trial hearings, Manning explained his motivation for the leaks, saying, “I believed if the public, particularly the American public, could see this it could spark a debate on the military and our foreign policy in general as it applied to Iraq and Afghanistan. It might cause society to reconsider the need to engage in counter terrorism while ignoring the human situation of the people we engaged with every day.”
Michael Ratner, president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and now attorney for Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, was among the few individuals in the room at the military court facility in Fort Meade, Maryland, as Manning made that declaration. Ratner wrote at the time:
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