Julian Assange has attacked the conviction of US soldier Bradley Manning on espionage charges, calling him a hero.
Speaking inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, the WikiLeaks founder said the conviction by a military court set a dangerous precedent.
The Australian, who has been inside the embassy for over a year to avoid extradition to Sweden, said he took no solace from Manning's acquittal on the most dangerous charge of aiding the enemy.
The US solider, who admitted leaking confidential documents to WikiLeaks, was convicted of 19 charges.
Assange said he expected Manning to appeal against the decision.
Assange said the only victim in the case had been the US government's "wounded pride", adding that Manning's disclosures had helped spark the Arab Spring.
"This was never a fair trial," he said.
He criticised the treatment of the US soldier since his arrest in 2010, saying he had been stripped, kept isolated and in a cage to "break" him.
The sentencing process will begin on Wednesday but Assange said there were two appeals within the US justice system as well as the supreme Court.
"WikiLeaks will not rest until he is free."
Assange said the aiding an enemy charge was absurd, put forward as a red herring to detract from the other charges.
He described the soldier as the best journalistic source the world had ever seen, uncovering war crimes in Iraq which he maintained had led to the removal of US troops from that country.
Assange said the only just outcome would have been acquittal on all the charges, saying conviction was a "clear abuse" of the first amendment and Espionage Act in the US.
He described the actions of Manning as "unquestionably heroic".
