. . . June
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Demonstrators to call for release of soldier in Wikileaks case
Media | guardian.co.uk:
Rallies will be staged in 21 US cities this week calling for the release of Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking military secrets to the public.
Manning allegedly passed on the video known as 'collateral murder' that showed American troops shooting civilians from a helicopter in Iraq in July 2007. The dead included two employees of the Reuters news agency.
Though the actions depicted in the video amount to violations of the Geneva Conventions (aka war crimes), none of the soldiers have been prosecuted.
Manning, who faces 52 years in prison, is also being investigated for allegedly leaking the 'Afghan war diary' documents that were posted on Wikileaks and reported by The Guardian, the New York Times and Der Spiegel.
Marjorie Cohn, a professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, argues that if Manning did what he is accused of doing, he should be honoured as a hero for exposing war crimes.
In a separate development, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been told he is not obliged to remain in Sweden even though prosecutors are however continuing to investigate rape allegations against him.
Assange's lawyer, Björn Hurtig, said: "I have been told that there is no arrest warrant against him."
Assange has said the allegations against him are part of a "smear campaign" aimed at discrediting his website, and that he will stay in Sweden to prove his innocence.
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