Chelsea Manning released from prison for contempt



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Former army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning was released from northern Virginia prison on Thursday after being suspended for two months for refusing to testify before a grand jury.

Manning spent 62 days at the Alexandria Detention Center on civil contempt charges after refusing to answer questions in front of a federal grand jury investigating WikiLeaks.

His lawyers fear, however, that his freedom is short-lived. She was released only because the grand jury term expired. Before leaving the prison, she received another subpoena requiring her testimony on May 16 before a new grand jury.

Her lawyers said she would refuse to answer questions again and risk a new prison term.

Manning spent seven years in a military prison for disclosing a wealth of documents to WikiLeaks before the then president, Barack Obama, traded the remainder of his 35-year sentence.

Earlier this week, Manning's lawyers filed court documents claiming that she should not be convicted of civil contempt because she proved she was angry at her. his principles and would not testify, no matter how long he was imprisoned.

Federal law allows only a recalcitrant witness to be imprisoned for contempt of court if there is a chance that the incarceration will compel the witness to testify. If a judge were to determine that Manning's incarceration was punitive rather than coercive, Manning would not be imprisoned.

"At this point, given the sacrifices she has already made, her strong tenets, her strong and growing support community, and the shame accompanying her surrender, it is inconceivable that Chelsea Manning ever changes her mind to about his refusal to cooperate with the grand jury, "wrote his lawyer.

Manning filed an eight-page statement with the court Monday, highlighting his resolution. She wrote that "cooperation with this grand jury is simply not an option, it would mean giving up all my principles, achievements, sacrifices and erasing decades of my reputation – an obvious impossibility," she said. she writes.

She also reported disproportionately suffering in prison because of physical problems related to inadequate follow-up care following a sexual conversion surgery.

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