WIKILEAKS HAS DONATED over $15,000 to the legal defence fund for Bradley Manning, the US army specialist and former intelligence analyst suspected of providing the site with many of its most sensitive documents.

Private Manning (pictured) – who turned 23 last month, and remains in solitary confinement at a Marine Corps base in Virginia – is suspected of having given the site the video of a 2007 helicopter attack in Baghdad, as well as the leaked archives of classified documents from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The donation brings the total amount pledged by WikiLeaks to Manning’s defence to just over $100,000, though The Register reports that the donation still leaves the group about another $15,000 short of its total fundraising target.

WikiLeaks had pledged last July to cover Manning’s legal bills; the donation comes as Julian Assange remains on bail in the UK, and has reportedly signed book deals worth €1.3m to tell his life story.

Assange will next month return to court to face an extradition warrant to Sweden, where he is wanted on rape and molestation charges; his lawyers insist that the charges are a guise under which Assange can then be extradited to America.

Assange’s lawyers say that he could have the death sentence put to him there, or that he may end up being detained in Guantanamo Bay. Ironically, Assange has previously claimed that he is also in possession, but has yet to publish, a leaked file containing the details of every inmate held at the facility.

The New York Times adds that the US Justice Department is still trying to identify charges it can press against Assange, and has demanded that Twitter hand over records relating to the WikiLeaks account on the service.

Manning’s own lawyers yesterday filed a petition with the US government appealing for an expedited trial of their client, who is denied TV, radio, newspapers, exercise, blankets or a pillow, and who spends 23 hours a day alone/