Bradley Manning - 2+ Years Without Trial: Fair or Foul?

The harsh conditions forced upon Bradley Manning
in military detention have been laid out in detail as part of a court
filing in which the US army is accused of a "flagrant violation" of his
right not to be punished prior to trial.

The Article 13 motion, published Friday by Manning's civilian lawyer David Coombs on his website, claims that Manning, who is accused of leaking state secrets to WikiLeaks,
was held in a 6x8 ft cell for 23 to 24 hours a day. In addition, when
not sleeping, Manning was banned from lying down, or even using a wall
to support him.

The motion also claims that Manning was punished
through "degradation and humiliation", notably by forcing him to stand
outside his cell naked during a morning inspection. This, his Coombs
claims, was "retaliatory punishment" for speaking out over his
treatment.

Manning, 24, is accused of being behind the biggest
leak of state secrets in US history. Hundreds of thousands of diplomatic
cables from US embassies around the world, as well as war logs from
Afghanistan and Iraq, were published by the whistleblowing website
WikiLeaks.

The information was provided by Manning from his
military base near Baghdad, army prosecutors have claimed. They have
indicted Manning on 22 counts, including charges of aiding the enemy –
charges that carry a maximum penalty of death, although prosecutors have
indicated that they will not seek capital punishment.

Coombs is
attempting to get all charges dismissed on the grounds that he was
subjected to illegal pre-trial treatment – in violation of the
constitutional prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. The claim
relates to the nine months that Manning spent after being transferred to
the Quantico marine base in Virginia following his arrest in May 2010.

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