Rallies in 70 cities around the world marked the 1,000 day that Bradley Manning, the gay US soldier who allegedly released hundreds of thousands of confidential army documents to Wikileaks, has been held in prison by the American government.

‘The documents leaked by Manning exposed the rampant criminality in American foreign policy – but President Obama has chosen to imprison the alleged leaker, Manning, rather than those who committed violent war crimes such as massacring journalists and other civilians in Iraq,’ said a statement from LGBT Liberation, who organized the protest in Chicago.

Manning is due in court for another pretrial hearing this week. His defense lawyer David Coombs is arguing that the judge should dismiss charges against the soldier because he has been denied a speedy trial.

‘PFC Manning’s statutory and constitutional speedy trial rights have been trampled upon with impunity,’ said Coombs.

Manning has been held in prison since May 2010. In November 2012 he plead guilty to some of the charges against him in a pre-trial.

Protests were planned for last Saturday in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Korea, Uganda, the UK and 46 cites in the US.