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Bradley Manning Trial to Begin September 21st
April 26, 2012
An Army judge ruled this afternoon that the court martial of 24-year-old Army Private First Class Bradley Manning, who is alleged to have leaked hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the WikiLeaks website, will begin in five months time on September 21, 2012. Manning has been in pretrial confinement since being arrested nearly two years ago on May 25, 2010 at his post in Iraq.
Colonel Denise Lind, the presiding judge at today’s hearing at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, also rejected all of the motions by Manning’s civilian lawyer David Coombs to dismiss the charges against Manning. The most serious charge is that Manning provided aid and comfort to the enemy by disclosing classified information. If found guilty on this charge alone, Manning could face the death penalty. But the lead Army prosecutor in the case has already said that he will not ask for the death penalty if Manning is convicted of this charge. -
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