Whistleblower Chelsea Manning Ordered
Immediately Released From Federal Holding
By Sputnik
March 12, 2020 "Information
Clearing House" US District
Judge Anthony J. Trenga ordered whistleblower
Chelsea Manning released from detention on
Thursday, a day after she attempted to take her
own life. However, he did not release her from
the fines she incurred as punishment, which
total a quarter of a million dollars.
"Upon consideration of the Court's May 16,
2019, order, the motion, and the court's March
12, 2020, order discharging Grand Jury 19-3, 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 in a Thursday court order.
"The court further finds 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."
"According, it is hereby ordered that
Chelsea Manning be, and she hereby is,
immediately released from the custody of the
attorney general," he wrote.
However, the judge denied Manning's request
to have waived $256,000 in fines she had accrued
since the previous May, which he added as an
additional coercive measure to try and force her
to testify.
The decision comes
a day after Manning attempted to end her life
while in Virginia's Alexandria Detention Center
and a day before she was due to appear in court
regarding a
February 19 motion for her release. She has
been in detention since March 2019 for her
refusal to testify before a grand jury about her
interactions with WikiLeaks co-founder Julian
Assange, who helped her publish a trove of
stolen US government documents in 2010 revealing
US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Manning,
then a US Army intelligence analyst, was tried
and sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013 for
that crime, but released in 2017 when departing
US President Barack Obama commuted her sentence.
Her detention has been
protested by tens of thousands of activists,
academics, politicians, and sympathetic persons,
including the United Nations' special rapporteur
on torture, Nils Melzer, who wrote a letter to
the US government in November denouncing her
treatment and calling for her release.
On Wednesday,
Melzer wrote on Twitter that Manning's
suicide attempt was "typical for the
confusion, dehumanisation & suffering
deliberately inflicted through prolonged
psychological torture."
Assange was arrested in the United Kingdom a
month after Manning was detained, and the US
Department of Justice revealed he was charged
with 18 counts relating to his publication of
Manning's documents. The first round of
Assange's extradition hearings in London
happened last week, which could see him shipped
to the US for trial.
"Source"
Do you agree or disagree?
Post your comment here
Anti-War Activist Chelsea Manning Attempted
Suicide in Prison
She has been pressured to cooperate with an
investigation against journalists who expose
government misdeeds.
By teleSUR
March 12, 2020 "Information
Clearing House" -
Former U.S. Army
Intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning attempted
suicide on Wednesday at a detention center in
Virginia, where she has been incarcerated since
March 2019 for her refusal to give testimony before
a grand jury convened to investigate and prosecute
journalists whose work threatens to expose
government misdeeds.
The anti-war activist, who is currently recovering
her health at the hospital, was scheduled to appear
before a judge regarding a motion seeking to end the
civil contempt sanctions she faces.
"Ms. Manning is still scheduled to appear on Friday
for a previously-calendared hearing, at which Judge
Anthony Trenga will rule on a motion to terminate
the civil contempt sanctions stemming from her May
2019 refusal to give testimony before a grand jury
investigating the publication of her 2010
disclosures," Manning's lawyers said.
U.S. prosecutors have kept Manning in jail under
“coercive confinement”, which means that she will be
held in jail until she agrees to cooperate and
testify about her association with WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange.
"Coercive confinement is considered a violation of
international law, but the U.S. authorizes its use
to enforce cooperation with grand jury subpoenas...
|
Are You Tired Of
The Lies And
Non-Stop Propaganda?
|
Since Chelsea will never betray her principles, her
confinement is not coercive, but punitive, and must
not continue," organizations supporting the anti-war
activist said.
Before being at the Alexandria Detention Center,
Manning served seven years in a military prison on
the same charges that are currently being brought
against her.
Her lawyers have also assured that "she will not
betray her principles, even at the risk of serious
damage herself."
In 2019, in a letter to Judge Anthony Trenga,
Manning said that the judicial process against her
only seeks to intimidate journalists and editors who
dare to fulfill what society demands of them,
namely, to report the truth.
While a military intelligence analyst in 2010,
Manning leaked more than 700,000 classified
documents on the U.S. military and political actions
in Iraq and Afghanistan. This information exposed
the true reasons that motivated Washington to
militarily attack these countries.
In August 2013, a military court sentenced the
former US soldier to 35 years in prison. Later,
however, the then-President Barack Obama commuted
his sentence.
"Source"
Do you agree or disagree? Post
your comment here
| |
|
==See Also==
George
Galloway: US govt’s persecution of Chelsea Manning is medieval
punishment, the cutting out of tongues, the murder of truth
|
