Manning attorney asks presidential pardon due to his conviction

David Coombs

David Coombs, attorney for the soldier Bradley Manning, requested a presidential pardon for his client to enable his release “as soon as possible.” Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks.

Manning’s lawyer asked U.S. President Barack Obama, through the channels enabled in the Armed Forces releases Manning from prison for the time he has already served in jail since late May 2010.

Josh Eearnest, White House spokesman, said today in a press conference that Manning apology would be treated like any other request received by Obama.

For his part, Julian Assange, the Australian hacker who spread the information leaked by Manning, said the sentence the soldier is a strategic victory as applying sentence reduction for good behavior, the convict could go free in about 5 years if he does not receives a pardon from President Obama.