Chelsea Manning IS ordered to be RELEASED from jail one day after her suicide attempt because 'her testimony is no longer needed'
- Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, 31, has been ordered to be released from jail, one day after her suicide attempt in prison
- Her testimony is 'no longer needed, in light of which her detention no longer serves any coercive purpose'
- She was held at the Alexandria Detention Center since May for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks and Julian Assange
- Federal judge Anthony J. Trenga of the Eastern District of Virginia said the grand jury investigating WikiLeaks is no longer active
- On Wednesday the former Army private attempted suicide in her prison cell but was resuscitated by guards and transported to a hospital
- She was scheduled to appear in court on Friday
Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been ordered to be released from prison, just one day after she attempted suicide in her Virginia jail cell.
Manning was ordered by a judge to be released from jail Thursday, where she's been held for over a year for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.
Her testimony is 'no longer needed, in light of which her detention no longer serves any coercive purpose,' court filings said.
'Accordingly, is hereby ordered that Chelsea Manning be, and she hereby is, immediately released from the custody of the Attorney General,' court papers said.
Federal judge Anthony J. Trenga of the Eastern District of Virginia said the grand jury investigating WikiLeaks is no longer active.
Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been ordered to be released from prison Thursday, just one day after she attempted suicide in her Virginia jail cell
Her testimony is 'no longer needed, in light of which her detention no longer serves any coercive purpose,' court filings said
In her time in jail Manning accrued more than $256,000 in fines for refusing to co-operate with the inquiry. A judge ordered that the fee must be paid in full even though her legal team asked for it to be vacated
In her time in jail Manning accrued more than $256,000 in fines for refusing to co-operate with the inquiry. A judge ordered that the fee must be paid in full even though her legal team asked for it to be vacated.
'It is further ordered that Chelsea Manning’s motion be, and the same hereby is, denied with respect to Ms. Manning’s request to vacate the conditional fines accrued against her to date.'
She was held in custody at the Alexandria Detention Center for 11 months since May for refusing to testify in the WikiLeaks case.
Hacker Jeremy Hammond, who was also being held in custody in civil contempt for refusing to testify before the WikiLeaks grand jury, was also ordered released on Thursday. He is still serving a ten-year prison sentence.
Manning was previously scheduled to appear in court for a detention hearing on Friday, that was also cancelled on Thursday.
On Wednesday the 31-year-old was found around 1pm in her jail cell where she attempted to hang herself with a bed sheet. Guards were able resuscitate her and brought her to a hospital where she is recovering.
In 2010 Manning, then working as an Army intelligence analyst in Iraq, leaked more than 700,000 classified State and Defense Department documents to WikiLeaks that exposed possible war crimes and internal US communications about other countries.
Manning, a transgender woman whom supporters call a whistleblower, spent seven years in military prison but was released by President Obama.
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But she told a judge last May she would rather starve to death than change her decision to testify about it in front of a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Manning’s attorney, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, confirmed her suicide attempt in a statement to DailyMail.com.
'On Wednesday March 11 Chelsea Manning attempted to take her own life. She was taken to a hospital and is currently recovering,' she said.
Manning, a transgender woman whom supporters call a whistleblower, passed more 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks that exposed possible war crimes and internal US communications about other countries. Manning, who enlisted in the Army in 2007, pictured above in uniform
'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.
'In spite of those sanctions - which have so far included over a year of so-called "coercive" incarceration and nearly half a million dollars in threatened fines - she remains unwavering in her refusal to participate in a secret grand jury process that she sees as highly susceptible to abuse.'
Meltzer-Cohen said Manning had previously indicated that she 'will not betray her principles, even at risk of grave harm to herself'.
She added: 'Her actions today evidence the strength of her convictions, as well as the profound harm she continues to suffer as a result of her "civil" confinement - a coercive practice that the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, recently said violates international law.'
In March of last year Manning was called to testify to a grand jury - a panel investigating major crimes that operates in secrecy - about her work with the site’s founder, Assange.
When Manning refused and accused the government of abusing the grand jury process a judge found her in contempt of court and jailed her indefinitely.
She was released two months later when the grand jury's mandate expired but and was called to testify before another one, asking many of the same questions.
Chlsea was found with a sheet around her neck in her cell at the Alexandria Detention Center (above), where she's been held since May, on Wednesday
Manning refused a second time, telling Judge Anthony Trenga she would 'rather starve to death' that comply.
He responded by jailing her again and hitting her with daily fines that have increased over time to $1,000 every day of her incarceration.
In February Manning’s lawyers lodged a motion calling for her to be set free, saying she would never change her mind.
'Her incarceration is not serving its only permissible purpose,' it said.
In 2013 a military judge found Manning guilty of 20 counts, six under the espionage act but acquitted her of the most serious charge of aiding the enemy, for leaking the confidential documents.
Assange, 48, is currently in jail in the UK where he faces extradition proceedings after a grand jury in the US agreed he put lives at risk by leaking classified documents.
He was arrested last April at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he had been seeking asylum since 2012.
Assange faces 18 charges and a possible 175 prison sentence.
