Manning testifies at pretrial hearing

NEW: Manning testifies in a defense effort to show he underwent harsh treatment The defense has said it plans to have Manning plead guilty to lesser charges The judge notes some charges the defense names are not now on the list Manning has not officially told the court he will plead guilty to the charges Fort Meade, Maryland (CNN) -- Pfc. Bradley Manning has begun testifying at his pretrial hearing about alleged abuse he suffered while held at Quantico Marine Corps base. The Army private, accused of stealing thousands of classified documents that were then published online by WikiLeaks, spoke in a clear voice at the start of his testimony. He was wearing his Army service uniform and wire-rimmed glasses. Manning's defense team wants to make the case that his harsh treatment in prison should count as time served and subtracted from whatever his eventual sentence is. Earlier Thursday, a military judge ruled that new charges would have to be filed before Manning could enter a guilty plea to some lesser charges. The defense has said it plans to have Manning plead guilty to lesser offenses and fight other charges as being too extreme. At a pretrial hearing at Fort Meade the military judge, Col. Denise Lind, noted that only some of the offenses Manning is proposing to plead to are included in the current list of charges. If he were to plead guilty to these charges he would face a maximum of 16 years in prison, loss if pay, demotion to private and a dishonorable discharge. Graham Nash stands up for whistleblower But the judge decided other charges the defense proposed Manning plead to are irregular and would not be accepted unless a convening authority were to refer the charges to the court. Manning was held in the Quantico brig from July 2010 until he was moved to the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in April 2011. At Wednesday's session of the hearing, Marine Col. Robert Oltman, who oversaw security at Quantico, said he was not pressured by superiors to keep Manning in a high-level lockup and under constant watch. His decision to maintain maximum-security status for Manning was born out of caution, he said. A Navy psychiatrist testified that his regular recommendations to ease Manning's heightened confinement status after being taken off formal suicide watch within weeks of his arrival in Virginia from the Middle East were not acted upon by commanders. "The degree of concern of his safety and security was higher than anything I'd previously seen," said Capt. William Hoctor, who has more than 20 years of experience in military and civilian corrections. Several times during the hearing Wednesday, there was testimony about Manning being forced to stand outside his cell naked during morning roll call. Oltman testified that nudity was Manning's choice and that he had two blankets for covering up if he wanted to use them. Coombs alleged that Manning was told to drop the blankets. A spokesman for Manning said previously that he also was prevented from exercising and had to respond every five minutes -- around the clock -- to loud verbal queries to ensure he was not trying to commit suicide. Hoctor testified that he believed Manning was a potential suicide risk when he arrived, but he recommended that Manning be taken off suicide watch after a week. Despite that recommendation, Manning's status was never changed. Manning, an Army intelligence analyst, is accused of leaking classified military and State Department documents while serving in Iraq. Many of them wound up on the WikiLeaks website. WikiLeaks has never confirmed that Manning was the source of the information. Counts against Manning include aiding the enemy, wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the Internet, transmitting national defense information and theft of public property or records. He could receive a sentence of up to life if convicted on all counts at his court martial.