Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of the biggest leak of classified material in US history chose not to testify at his court-martial on Wednesday, when the Defence rested its case.
The 25-year old US Army Private First Class is charged with disclosing more than 700,000 classified files, combat videos and State Department cables to the pro-transparency website WikiLeaks.
Manning, who served as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2009 and 2010, could face life in prison without parole if convicted of the most serious of 21 charges, aiding the enemy.
Manning told Judge Colonel Denise Lind he would not testify in his own defense, which rested on Wednesday after only three days with nine witnesses. The trial had been expected to take another month and the Defence had planned to call 46 witnesses.
Court-martial prosecutors spent five weeks portraying Manning’s wholesale leaking of information as recklessly endangering others and benefiting US enemies, including the extremist group al-Qaeda.
Defence lawyers sought to show that the short, bespectacled Manning was naive but well-intentioned in seeking to inform Americans about the reality of the wars in Afghanistan. He saw himself as an important whistleblower whose aim was to spark worldwide discussion and positive change, they said.
More than three years after Manning’s arrest in May 2010, the US intelligence community is reeling again from leaked secrets, this time exposed by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, still on the run. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has surfaced again as a major player in the newest scandal, this time aiding Snowden in eluding authorities to seek asylum abroad.