Tighter security at Bradley Manning hearing after video leak
FORT MEADE, Maryland Security for the sentencing hearing of U.S. soldier Bradley Manning has tightened after some courtroom video appeared online.
Military police on Monday carefully searched the bags of journalists entering a building where the Army provides a closed-circuit video feed from the nearby courtroom.
The 16-second video on the website Vimeo shows the judge on the bench and Manning at the defense table.
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The soundtrack includes Manning supporters chanting, "Free Bradley Manning."
Manning's defense team is opening its case Monday. Manning is expected to make a statement Wednesday.
The 25-year-old faces up to 90 years in prison for disclosing reams of classified information through the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.
He says he did it to expose wrongdoing. Prosecutors say the leaks hurt U.S. foreign relations.
Also on Monday, Nobel Prize committee officials say they have received a petition claiming some 100,000 signatures that endorses awarding the peace prize to Manning.
Peace laureate Mairead Maguire nominated Manning for the prize in June, saying his leaks had helped end the war in Iraq by hastening foreign troop withdrawals and dissuading further American intervention in the Middle East.
U.S. anti-war activist Norman Solomon gave the petition on Monday to Nobel committee member Asle Toje, who said the annually awarded $1 million Nobel Prizes are "not a popularity contest" and the petition would neither weaken nor strengthen Manning's nomination.
The last jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner was Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010.