I can send emails only, but not receive them. My ISP apparently doesn't know
how to fix Outlook and will contact me about my problem within the next 24
hours.
Miriam
Federal Judge Orders Chelsea Manning Released from Jail
March 12, 2020 Save
The order came after the grand jury investigating WikiLeaks was dismissed,
Kevin Gosztola reports.
Chelsea Manning. (Screen shot of live stream from Ford Fischer)
Release Comes Day After
Manning Suicide Attempt
By Kevin Gosztola
Shadowproof
Federal judge Anthony Trenga ordered a jail in Alexandria, Virginia, to
release United States Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning. The order came
after the grand jury investigating WikiLeaks was dismissed.
Manning was confined for 365 days or one year after being held in civil
contempt because she refused to testify before a grand jury empaneled to
investigate WikiLeaks. She attempted to commit suicide on March 11.
During her time in jail, Manning accumulated $256,000 in fines. She faced a
fine of $500 per day for 30 days. That increased to $1,000 per day until she
was released.
Trenga refused to waive these fines. She will still owe over a quarter of a
million dollars.
In August, Trenga ruled, "Manning has the ability to comply with the court's
financial sanctions or will have the ability after her release from
confinement. Therefore, the imposed fines of $500 per day after 30 days and
$1,000 per day after 60 days is not so excessive as to relieve her of those
sanctions or to constitute punishment rather than a coercive measure."
Manning's legal team challenged the court. "She has no personal savings, an
uncertain speaking career that has been abruptly halted by her
incarceration, and is moving her few belongings into storage, as she can no
longer afford to pay her rent."
Furthermore, according to her legal team, Manning attempted to share her
financial records with the federal court in an effort to show that she has
debt and a "compromised earning capacity," which has "left her balance
sheets near zero." But the court apparently never completed a financial
assessment of her ability to pay fines.
While Manning was in jail, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils
Melzer condemned [PDF] the U.S. government's "coercive measures" against
Manning.
Melzer suggested authorities intentionally inflicted "progressively severe
mental and emotional suffering for the purposes of coercion and intimidation
at the order of judicial authorities," and it compounded Manning's
post-traumatic symptoms and other mental and physical health problems, which
she still experiences as a result of prior abuse she endured when she was
imprisoned for releasing documents to WikiLeaks.
"I conclude that such deprivation of liberty does not constitute a
circumscribed sanction for a specific offense but an open-ended,
progressively severe measure of coercion fulfilling all the constitutive
elements of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment," Melzer declared.
It was the second time in the past 10 years that a U.N. official condemned
the U.S. government's "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment" against
Manning.
