The U.S. Army Wednesday notified Pfc. Bradley Manning, a prime suspect in the WikiLeaks case, that he now faces 22 more charges in connection with allegedly downloading secret information from computers in Iraq.
The most serious new charge alleges that he aided the enemy by making this information public. That charge is punishable by death. A news release from the Army said the prosecution team “has notified the defense that the prosecution will not recommend the death penalty,” but technically it is up to the commander overseeing the case to make the final decision about the death penalty.
All told, Manning, a military intelligence analyst from Oklahoma, now faces a total of 34 charges in the case, including:
— Wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the internet
— Theft of public records
— Transmitting defense information
— Transferring classified data onto his personal computer
— Disclosing classified information concerning the national defense.
Manning’s lawyer, David Coombs, would not comment on the new charges, but posted a statement on his blog Wednesday evening:
“Over the past few weeks, the defense has been preparing for the possibility of additional charges in this case.”
U.S. military officials have said that Manning is the prime suspect in the leak of many thousands of classified documents that ended up on the WikiLeaks website. However, WikiLeaks is not mentioned in the charge sheets.
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