Manning was convicted in August 2013 of espionage after admitting to leaking 700,000 sensitive military and diplomatic classified documents to WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has welcomed the decision by US President Barack Obama to commute the sentence of Chelsea Manning, jailed for leaking classified US documents, while calling for an end to a "war on whistleblowers". "I welcome President Obama's decision to commute the sentence of Ms. Chelsea Manning from 35 years to time served," Assange said in a statement yesterday sent to AFP by one of his lawyers. Manning was convicted in August 2013 of espionage and other offenses after admitting to leaking 700,000 sensitive military and diplomatic classified documents to WikiLeaks. Earlier this month WikiLeaks said on Twitter that Assange would agree to US extradition if Obama were to grant Manning clemency.

Source: dna January 18, 2017 05:54 UTC