Federal Court Rejects Chelsea Manning's Appeal to Be Released from Jail
The charges were reaffirmed by Judges from the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals
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Chelsea Manning’s bid to be released from jail has been refused by a federal appeals court, meaning the whistleblower will be held indefinitely after refusing to testify to a grand jury probe into WikiLeaks.
The charges were reaffirmed by Judges from the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals, denying her request to be released.
“The court finds no error in the district court’s rulings and affirms its finding of civil contempt,” the court said in its decision.
“The court also denies appellant’s motion for release on bail.” Manning is likely to pursue further appeals.
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Last month, a U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton of the in Eastern Virginia Court ordered Manning's imprisonment "after a brief hearing in which Manning confirmed she has no intention of testifying," according to the Associated Press.
The order to send Manning to jail is under seal, but the judge issued the sanction against the military whistleblower in open court, the clerk's office said in a statement.
On April 11, Julian Assange was arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy in central London.
Ecuador awarded Assange political asylum after becoming a fugitive from a British arrest warrant for breaching bail conditions in 2012.
In rejecting Chelsea Manning's appeal, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals essentially ignored all arguments for release from jail https://t.co/oY19KpOBRh
— Kevin Gosztola (@kgosztola) April 22, 2019
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According to Manning’s lawyers, her rights were violated by the grand jury proceedings, and that federal prosecutor used a subpoena to “entrap” her.
The lawyers also argued that Manning had presented all the information she had during her previous court-martial investigation and that her imprisonment was cruel as the jail cannot provide proper medical care.
Manning, to date, has already spent seven years behind bars.
The former US Army intelligence analyst was arrested in 2010 for handing classified documents to WikiLeaks that exposed evidence of US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Manning was sentenced to 35 years in a military prison under the Espionage Act in 2013.
Forme president Barack Obama commuted her sentence before he left office, and she was released in 2017.
