PFC Bradley Manning in April 2012. Image via Wikimedia Commons
United States Army soldier Bradley Manning has admitted to having provided WikiLeaks with classified information; however, he has entered a plea of not guilty in regard to 12 more serious charges.
The 10 charges to which Manning has pleaded guilty include possessing and wilfully communicating information to an unauthorised person. This accounts for videos of an airstrike in Baghdad and one in Afghanistan, thousands of US diplomatic cables and thousands of reports from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, all of which were published by WikiLeaks and its media partners between April and November 2010.
Manning has denied, however, that he knowingly aided the enemy (namely, terrorist group al Qaeda) by making this information available– a charge that could carry a life sentence.
The 10 charges Manning has admitted to could carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. It is believed that the prosecution will now push for a full court martial hearing to take place on 3 June.
It is reported that Manning has written a 35-page statement explaining why he leaked the information.
