Manning released from jail as judge rules fines must be paid
● Former army analyst had been in prison for nearly a year
Former US army intelligence analyst and Wikileaks source Chelsea Manning has been released from prison, ending roughly a year of incarceration that she had served for refusing to testify to a grand jury.
US District Judge Anthony Trenga ordered Manning’s release from jail after prosecutors reported the grand jury that subpoenaed her had disbanded. The Alexandria sheriff ’s office confirmed on Thursday night that Manning had been released.
The judge left in place more than $256,000 (£204,772) in fines he imposed for her refusal to testify to the grand jury, which is investigating Wikileaks. The fines had been accumulating at a rate of $1,000 a day.
A hearing in the case that had been scheduled for yesterday was cancelled.
Manning had argued she had shown through her prolonged stay at the Alexandria jail that she proved she could not be coerced into testifying and therefore should be released.
Her legal statement asked for privacy, with representatives saying they were relieved at her release.
On Wednesday, her lawyers said she had attempted suicide while at the jail.
Manning has been held since May for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating Wikileaks.
She spent an additional two months in jail earlier last year for refusing to testify to a separate grand jury.
Manning could have faced nearly six more months of jail time if the grand jury had continued its work.
The civil contempt citation was designed to coerce her testimony.
Federal prosecutors had maintained that Manning could easily effect her own release by complying with the grand jury subpoena.
They said she had the same duty to provide testimony that all citizens face.
Under federal law, a recalcitrant witness can only be jailed for civil contempt if there is a reasonable belief that incarceration will coerce the witness into testifying.
If the jail time had no coercive effect and was purely punitive, the recalcitrant witness is supposed to be released.
Manning has said she believed grand juries in general were an abuse of power and that she would rather starve to death than testify.
Judge Trenga, in originally sending Manning to jail, said there was no dishonour in testifying to grand juries, which are referenced specifically in the US Constitution, and that he hoped time in jail would allow Manning to reflect on that.
Manning had previously spent seven years in a military prison for delivering a trove of classified information to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who is under indictment at the Alexandria courthouse and is fighting extradition to the US. Manning’s 35-year sentence was then commuted by then-president Barack Obama.
It is possible that prosecutors could convene another grand jury and again subpoena Manning and she could again be jailed for refusing to testify. But there is no clear indication from prosecutors that they would do so.
Prosecutors declined to comment yesterday on Manning’s release.
US prosecutors have been investigating Wikileaks for several years.
They are seeking the extradition of its co-founder Assange from the UK over his alleged role in the 2010 release of classified military and diplomatic material.
Australian-born Assange faces a charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion in the US.
The extradition hearing is due to resume on 18 May.
Assange’s father John Shipton said earlier this month his greatest worry was that “after ten years of steadily increasing persecution, Julian will die in jail”.