Washington: A US Army general has denied clemency to the
soldier formerly known as Bradley Manning for leaking hundreds of thousands of
documents to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, upholding a 35-year sentence.
Major General Jeffrey Buchanan, the convening
authority in Manning's court-martial, approved the August findings and sentence
of military Judge Denise Lind last week, but his decision was only made public
yesterday. Manning, who has requested a name change to
Chelsea and publicly announced via her lawyers that she considers herself as
female, had filed a request for clemency in March.According to military justice rules, Manning's case will
automatically be appealed to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals. Manning's supporters say the appeals process
should be taken before US federal courts and all the way to the Supreme Court.
Defence attorney David Coombs had asked
President Barack Obama to grant clemency to Manning.In an open letter, Coombs said the former
intelligence analyst did not receive a fair trial, and called for Buchanan to
reduce the "unjust" and "excessive" sentence. "The information disclosed by PFC Manning
was not our nation's most vital secrets," Coombs wrote. "The reality of the situation is that this
information did not cause any real damage to our country." Lawyers Nancy
Hollander and Vincent Ward are currently responsible for Manning's appeals
procedures.
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