Military judge: Bradley Manning subjected to illegal pretrial punishment

• Tweet
• 
• 

• Tweet

A military judge has knocked 112 days off any potential sentence for Army Private Bradley Manning, who has been accused of illegally transferring a drove of secret State Department documents to WikiLeaks.

Col. Denise Lind ruled during a pretrial hearing on Tuesday that Manning, 25, had been subjected to illegal pretrial punishment, according to the Associated Press. Manning had been held nine months in a Marine brig at Quantico before being transferred to a U.S. Army prison at Fort Leavenworth

During his stay at Quantico, Manning was kept in solitary confinement, shackled in hand and leg irons, and stripped naked at night. The Marine brig commander said the extreme measures were to prevent Manning from committing suicide, but Manning’s attorney has argued he was being improperly punished for his alleged crimes.

Manning faces a possible life sentence in military custody for aiding the enemy, along with 21 other charges.