Chelsea Manning Released From Prison After Suicide Attempt
A Federal District Court judge has released Chelsea Manning from jail and dismissed a grand jury that was investigating Wikileaks and Julian Assange the New York Times reports.
Manning, a former US Army intelligence analyst who leaked classified military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, had been jailed since May last year for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the organisation and Assange.
The release came one day after Manning attempted to take her own life in the Alexandria adult detention centre. The judge wrote imprisonment no longer served a “coercive purpose”.
“The court finds that Ms Manning’s appearance before the grand jury is no longer needed, in light of which her detention no longer serves any coercive purpose,” Judge Trenga wrote.
Judge Trenga did not dismiss the $256,000 fines for defying the subpoena. The judge wrote that “enforcement of the accrued, conditional fines would not be punitive but rather necessary to the coercive purpose of the court’s civil contempt order.”
Manning served seven year in prison after admitting she leaked hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks when she was an intelligence analyst. She said she grew disgusted with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars after prolonged exposure to their brutality.
Manning’s attempt on her own life is sadly not uncommon among the LGBTIQ community. According to the National LGBTI Health Alliance, transgender people 18 and over are nearly 11 times more likely to attempt suicide compared to the general population.
If you or anyone you know needs help, please contact crisis support services:
In Australia that’s Lifeline on 13 11 14.
In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org.
Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org
