The U.S. military confirmed on Friday (February 3) that Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning was to face a full court martial over his alleged involvement in passing classified information to WikiLeaks.
The 24-year-old is accused of participation in the largest leak of classified information in American history.
He faces 22 charges including aiding the enemy, wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the internet, and theft of public property.
Military prosecutors say he downloaded more than 70, 000 classified files that later appeared on WikiLeaks which promotes the leaking of government and corporate information.
A military judge, selected by the U.S. Army Trial Judiciary, will set the date for Manning's arraignment, motion hearings and trial.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is currently fighting extradition from Britain to Sweden over accusations of sex crimes.
Assange has denied any wrongdoing and says the allegations which surfaced at the height of the international WikiLeaks furore in 2010 were an attempt to silence him.
He's accusing U.S. authorities of looking for a way to go after him in retaliation for WikiLeaks revelations.
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