Accused WikiLeaker Manning says he was punished before trial

[struggle4progress]

1. Accused WikiLeaker Bradley Manning to take stand over his claims of prison abuse

Posted: 6:34 PM

(CNN) -- U.S. Army private Bradley Manning is expected to take the stand for the first time this week as his lawyers plan to use his claim of mistreatment by military jailers to get his case thrown out.

The Army intelligence analyst is suspected of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified military and State Department documents while serving in Iraq. Many of them ended up on the WikiLeaks website. WikiLeaks has never confirmed that Manning was the source of the information.

Manning's lawyer, David Coombs, filed a motion last August to dismiss charges based on a claim, Manning says, of harsh treatment while held at the brig at the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia.

The pre-trial hearing that starts Tuesday at Ft. Mead, Maryland, will be the first time Manning will have spoken in court other than answering procedural questions, said Jeff Paterson, a spokesman for the Bradley Manning Support Network ...

http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/state/accused-wikileaker-bradley-manning-to-take-stand-over-his-claims-of-prison-abuse