The court-martial of a U.S. Army private who leaked reams of classified information is heading toward closing arguments.
The trial of Pfc. Bradley Manning enters its eighth week Thursday at Fort Meade, near Baltimore. The former intelligence analyst from Crescent, Okla., is charged with aiding the enemy and other offenses for giving hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks in 2009 and 2010.
Testimony ended last week. The military judge has scheduled closing arguments for Thursday.
But the judge will first rule on defence motions to acquit Mr Manning of five theft counts. Those charges involve State Department diplomatic cables, Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports, Guantanamo Bay detainee threat assessments and service member email addresses.
