Bradley Manning, the US soldier convicted of handing a trove of secret government documents to anti-secrecy website Wikileaks, has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Private Manning’s sentence will automatically be sent to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals.

Manning, 25, was convicted in July of 20 charges against him, including espionage.

Last week, he apologized for hurting the US and for "the unexpected results" of his actions.

Prosecutors had asked for a 60-year sentence. He will receive credit for three and a half years.

Manning had already admitted passing hundreds of thousands of battlefield reports and diplomatic cables to Wikileaks while stationed in Iraq in 2010, saying in a pre-trial hearing he had leaked the secret files in order to spark a public debate about US foreign policy and the military.

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