Manning, 25, theformer Army intelligence officer who was branded as both a whistle-blower and a traitor after he sent 700,000 secret government documents to WikiLeaks, was convicted of illegally releasing classified documents knowing they would be accessible to the enemy.u00a0

The verdict is a striking rebuke to military prosecutors who argued that the largest leak in US history had assisted al-Qaeda. The verdict was handed down by Col Denise Lind, the judge at Manning's court-martial at Fort Meade.