UN: US treatment of Manning 'cruel'

"I believe Bradley Manning was subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in the excessive and prolonged isolation he was put in during the eight months he was in Quantico prison," Juan Ernesto Mendez said Monday.

According to Mendez the alleged mistreatment ended when Manning was transferred from Quantico to another prison in Kansas.

"But the explanation I was given for those eight months was not convincing for me," Mendez added.

Manning has been charged with 22 counts in connection with releasing hundreds of thousands of documents exposing lies, corruption and crimes by the US government to WikiLeaks.

Manning declined to enter a plea at his arraignment hearing at the Fort Meade army base on February 24, as his defense team pointed out much of what was published by WikiLeaks was either not actually secret or should not have been secret.

The one time intelligence analyst in Iraq faces court martial later this year. Manning had been in confinement for 635 days.

WikiLeaks supporters view the site as a whistleblower that exposed US wrongdoing and see Manning as a political prisoner. Manning had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by members of the Icelandic parliament.