A man protests the imprisonment of Bradley Manning in front of the Fort Meade, Md. where Manning is on trial, on July 30, 2013. A U.S. military judge on Tuesday ruled Bradley Manning, the Army private who is accused of leaking classified information to whistleblower site Wikileaks, not guilty of aiding the enemy, the most serious of the charges he faced, but guilty of most other charges. (Xinhua/Marcus DiPaola)

A US military judge on Tuesday ruled Bradley Manning, the Army private who is accused of leaking classified information to whistleblower site Wikileaks, not guilty of aiding the enemy, the most serious of the charges he faced, but guilty of most other charges.

The judge, Col. Denise Lind, found the 25-year-old Manning not guilty of aiding the enemy, when he released hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks. The charge carried a possible punishment of life in prison.

Manning was also found not guilty of unauthorized possession of information relating to national defense.

According to the verdict, Manning was convicted of multiple counts of other serious charges, including five charges espionage. The judge accepted some of the guilty pleas Manning made previously to lesser charges.

The sentencing phase of the court-martial is expected to begin Wednesday. Manning could still face long prison time. He has already spent three years in custody.

Manning was accused of delivering three-quarters of a million pages of classified documents and videos to WikiLeaks, covering numerous aspects of US military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and US diplomatic works all over the world. Wikileaks has never confirmed Manning as the source of its information.

Manning was arrested within months after one of the leaked videos appeared on WikiLeaks in April 2010. It appeared to be shot from a US attack helicopter as it fired on a group of people in Baghdad in 2007. A dozen people were killed, including a Reuters TV news cameraman and his driver.

WikiLeaks went on to publish documents related to the Afghanistan War in 2010, and then the Iraq War Logs and after that, diplomatic cables by US State Department officials, making the site a household name.

Manning's verdict was read in a courtroom in Fort Meade, Md., not far from Washington D.C., and supporters have gathered outside to demand his freedom.