Chelsea Manning's Twitter profile has changed: "Incarcerated Grand Jury Resister", is now there, so "imprisoned Grand Jury Resistance." The whistleblower has been in the Truesdale Detention Center in Alexandria, Virginia, for 25 days - refusing to testify before a secret grand jury. Manning had been summoned to testify in connection with military documents that she had forwarded to the WikiLeaks disclosure platform in 2010.
Chelsea Manning's lawyer team has filed an objection to her detention and requested her release. Her lawyers had previously demanded that the whistleblower only receives house arrest because of her condition instead of being in prison.
Manning's support group "Chelsea Resists" also criticizes the whistleblower's detention conditions: "Since their arrival in Truesdale on March 8, Chelsea has been placed in 'administrative segregation' or 'adseg'," it says in a statement the group, "a term that should sound less brutal than solitary." Chelsea is "locked in her cell for 22 hours a day". This treatment corresponded to solitary confinement conditions.
Chelsea's support committee demands that it be released from "administrative segregation" (solitary confinement)
Statement: https://t.co/VqxSjujH0S pic.twitter.com/5G45ob1s2g
Human rights organizations warn against the physical and psychological consequences of solitary confinement. In the United States, it is common for prisoners to be held in solitary confinement because of minor offenses - although this measure should be reserved for extreme cases. "The isolation is currently too widespread and takes too long," criticized Amnesty International.
Depression, hunger strike, suicide attempts
"It's not my first rodeo," said Chelsea Manning to her lawyer team before she was detained. The whistleblower was formerly known as Bradley Manning and worked as an IT expert for the US military. In 2013, she was sentenced to 35 years in prison for espionage by a military court, for example, for sharing thousands of documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as controversial material such as the video "Collateral Murder", on the WikiLeaks disclosure platform. Manning was arrested in 2010.
Former US President Barack Obama had shortened her sentence so that Manning was released in 2017 after nearly seven years in prison. During her detention, Manning had made several suicide attempts and a hunger strike, she was also temporarily held in solitary confinement.
Since then, Manning has been struggling with panic attacks and depression, something she also writes about in social networks. Her supporter team is currently worried about her condition. In the first week of detention, for example, she contracted an infection. And recently she is said to have stressed the change from solitary confinement to a 45-minute visit so much that she had to vomit.
Manning can be held in principle until it says or until the grand jury has finished its work. That she says Manning excludes so far. The whistleblower and her attorney team emphasize that she has previously spoken in court to hand over the documents to WikiLeaks - there is nothing new to add to those statements.
Controversial dishes
The American jury courts are controversial. They look for evidence of prosecution presented to the public prosecutor's office, excluding publicity and public scrutiny, and can even hear witnesses. On this basis, they decide if an indictment is allowed.
Whether the courts, which are to exclude arbitrariness of the state, work fair, however, is highly controversial: they are occupied by laymen and are considered not neutral - again and again controversial judgments were made.
Manning wants her to be understood as a sign of other whistleblowers. "I will exhaust all legal means," she had announced before going to jail. "My attorney team will continue to challenge the secrecy of these events, and I am prepared to bear the consequences of my refusal."