Chelsea Manning was sentenced again in prison for challenging the summons to appear before the grand jury

Chelsea Manning, a former US Army intelligence analyst and anti-secret activist, has been fired Thursday afternoon after being sentenced to a grand jury after being tried for contempt of court .

United States marshals took Manning into custody at the US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia on Thursday afternoon after refusing to co-operate, once again, with a subpoena to another grand jury federal secret.

Manning was released last Thursday after the expiry of the first grand jury. After his release, however, prosecutors struck him with a second summons to appear Thursday before a separate grand jury.

At a brief press conference before Thursday's hearing, Manning said she was ready to return to prison "indefinitely" rather than testify.

Eric Baradat / AFP / Getty Images

"No matter what happens today," said Manning, "I will not comply with this grand jury."

After Thursday's hearing, US East Virginia District Attorney General G. Zachary Terwilliger told reporters that "the only thing that was asked of [Manning] is to answer questions honestly. "

The last sentence of Manning will persist until it complies with the summons or expiry of the grand jury, said Thursday the American judge Anthony Trenga in court. Unlike his first delivery, after 30 days, Manning will be fined $ 500 daily. After 60 days, Manning will be fined $ 1,000 a day.

Federal grand juries are appointed for a maximum of 18 months, but it is not clear how long the grand jury is in office.

Although the nature of the grand jury investigation remains unknown, it meets in the same federal court where prosecutors have recently laid charges against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange.

Manning gained notoriety when she was sentenced to 35 years in jail in 2013 for unauthorized disclosure of classified documents made public by WikiLeaks in 2010. Her sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama in 2017.

"In 2010, Chelsea took the principled decision to leave the world with the true nature of modern asymmetric warfare," Moira Meltzer-Cohen, a Manning prosecutor, said Thursday. "It is telling that the United States has always been concerned about the disclosure of these documents rather than their overwhelming substance."

Assange was indicted in April on charges of hacking for his role. Manning's disclosure of these documents, a ploy that the government has described as "one of the largest compromises of classified information in US history".

Assange remains in Britain, where he fights extradition to the United States to face charges.