UK urged to help 'WikiLeaks mole'

Human-rights campaigners have called on the British Government to intervene in the case of a soldier held in a US jail on suspicion of passing state secrets to WikiLeaks – because he is partly British.

Bradley Manning, a private in the US Army, went to school in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, where his mother still lives, and is therefore part-British. Amnesty International argued the 23-year-old's Welsh parentage meant the British Government should investigate the truth of reports that he is being subjected to harsh treatment by his US guards. He is accused of passing hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables to the website.

But the Foreign Office said last night that it could not comment on Mr Manning's nationality.