Judge decides whether WikiLeaks leaker can be called Chelsea

U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted by military police as he arrives for his sentencing at a military court facility Aug. 21, 2013, in Fort Meade, Md. A judge granted a request April 23, 2014, for Manning to change her name from Bradley Edward to Chelsea Elizabeth. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. -- A Kansas judge granted a request Wednesday to formally change the name of the soldier convicted of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks from Bradley Edward Manning to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.

The former intelligence analyst is serving a 35-year prison sentence for passing classified U.S. government information to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. Manning is serving the sentence at the Army prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

During a hearing that lasted about a minute, Leavenworth County District Judge David King said he'd allow the name change.

The decision clears the way for official changes to Manning's military records, but it would not compel the military to treat Manning as a woman. That includes transferring Manning to a prison with a woman's unit.

Sgt. Bradley Manning, dressed as a woman; on April. 23, 2014 a judge approved his name change to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.

"Likewise, the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks is a male-only facility and prisoners there are referred to by the title 'inmate,'" Wright said in a statement to The Associated Press.

Manning, who grew up in Oklahoma, filed the court petition as the first step toward getting her Army records changed.

Manning has been diagnosed by at least two Army behavioral health specialists with gender dysphoria, or gender identity disorder.

Manning was sentenced in August for six Espionage Act violations and 14 other offenses for leaking more than 700,000 secret military and U.S. State Department documents, along with battlefield video, while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2009 and 2010. An Army general upheld the convictions last week, clearing the way for appeals with the Army Court of Criminal Appeals.

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Judge decides whether WikiLeaks leaker can be called Chelsea