Manning sent back to jail for contempt
Former US military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning was ordered back to jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury believed to be investigating WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Andy Stepanian, a spokesman for Manning’s legal team, said she had been remanded in custody by Judge Anthony Trenga for contempt of court after again refusing to provide testimony.
Manning, who spent seven years in military prisons for leaking US secrets to WikiLeaks in 2010 and then two more months in an Alexandria, Virginia, jail this year on contempt charges, had said before the hearing that she would again refuse to testify.
“I’m not going to comply with this grand jury,” she told journalists outside the Alexandria courthouse before the hearing.
According to The Washington Post, US District Court Judge Trenga sent Manning back to jail.
He ordered a fine of US$500 a day if she does not testify within 30 days, raising that to US$1,000 a day if she does not testify within 60 days.
The newspaper quoted Manning as saying “the government cannot build a prison bad enough, cannot create a system worse than the idea that I would ever change my principles.
“I would rather starve to death than to change my opinions in this regard,” she said. “I mean that quite literally.” The judge, the Post said, responded by telling Manning “There’s nothing dishonourable in discharging your responsibility as a US citizen.”
Manning has accused the government of seeking to revive her original court martial case, saying prosecutors were unhappy over her 2017 pardon by president Barack Obama. — AFP