A US federal judge has ordered that former US Army soldier and WikiLeaks source Chelsea Manning be immediately released from prison.
In 2010, while serving as an Army intelligence analyst in Iraq, Manning shared with WikiLeaks thousands of classified State and Defense Department cables.
She was sentenced to 35 years in a military prison but was released by President Barack Obama after seven years behind bars.
Manning was subsequently remanded for refusing to testify in an inquiry into Wikileaks and had been in detention in Virginia since last May.
BREAKING: Chelsea Manning ordered released from jail, where she has been held for over a year for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury. Her testimony “is no longer needed, in light of which her detention no longer serves any coercive purpose.” https://t.co/Q1vC1VsrBn
— Freedom of the Press (@FreedomofPress) March 12, 2020
An entry in the US District Court docket in Alexandria, Virginia, signed by Judge Anthony Trenga also rejected a request by Manning to cancel fines which he had imposed for her refusal to testify and ordered instead that a judgment be entered against her for $US256,000, the total amount of accrued fines.
BREAKING: A federal judge has ordered the release of Chelsea Manning: “the court finds Ms. Manning’s appearance before the Grand Jury is no longer needed, in light of which her detention no longer serves any coercive purpose.”
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 12, 2020
A detention hearing for Manning scheduled for Friday was cancelled.
On Thursday it was revealed that Manning had attempted to take her own life in the detention centre in which she is incarcerated.
-with agencies
