US ARMY PRIVATE Bradley Manning will find out tomorrow how long he will spend in jail after he was found guilty of espionage for his role in leaking information to whistleblower website Wikileaks.
Manning will be sentenced by military judge Colonel Denise Lind at Fort Meade, a military base just outside Washington, at 6pm GMT on Wednesday.
He faces a maximum potential sentence of 90 years in prison – and US military prosecutors have called for 25-year-old Manning to spend at least 60 years in jail to “send a message” to any soldier thinking of doing something similar.
Manning was cleared of aiding the enemy – the most serious charge he faced – but was found guilty of 20 of 22 counts related to his leaking of a huge trove of confidential US diplomatic cables, government records and military logs relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The former army intelligence analyst took to the stand during his sentencing hearing last week and apologised for hurting the United States, saying that he did not believe that it would cause harm at the time.
Supporters of Manning’s have already said they plan to hold a vigil at the gate of Fort Meade before the sentencing announcement is made tomorrow and have planned a rally at the White House later in the evening.
Manning’s lawyer, David Coombs, is due to speak to the media after the sentencing about his hope that Manning will qualify for a presidential pardon, regardless of the sentence handed down.
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