WikiLeaks soldier's sentence reduced, if convicted

Manning, a 25-year-old U.S. Army private, faces 22 charges including aiding the enemy, which carries a penalty of life in prison.

In the event he is convicted and receives a lesser sentence, Judge Colonel Denise Lind gave him credit for 112 additional days served as a form of recompense, the Defense Department said in a summary of the court martial's pretrial hearing at Fort

Meade, Maryland. The full trial was scheduled to start March 6. The mass disclosure of military and diplomatic secrets by WikiLeaks beginning in 2010 staggered diplomats across the globe and outraged U.S. officials, who said damage to national

security from the leaks endangered US Lives. The judge recognized treatment from the period Manning was held at the Marine Corps brig at Quantico, Virginia, from July of 2010 to April of 2011, including time on suicide watch. The judge granted 20 days credit in exchange for guards continuing to remove Manning's underwear at night and 10 days for denying him exercise, the Pentagon said. Lind refused to dismiss all charges, as the defense requested, and also declined to grant a defense request to reduce any sentence by 10 days for every day of his nearly nine months of being held with excessive treatment, the Guardian of Britain reported. That would have knocked more than seven years

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