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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/19/chelsea-manning-lawyers-call-release-jail?CMP=share_btn_tw">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/19/chelsea-manning-lawyers-call-release-jail?CMP=share_btn_tw</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Chelsea Manning's lawyers renew call to
release her from jail</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Ed Pilkington - February 19,
2020<br>
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<div class="moz-reader-content line-height4 reader-show-element">Lawyers
acting for <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/chelsea-manning"
data-link-name="auto-linked-tag"
data-component="auto-linked-tag">Chelsea Manning</a>, the
former US army intelligence analyst who leaked hundreds of
thousands of secret documents to WikiLeaks, have renewed
efforts to secure her release after almost a year of
incarceration.</div>
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<p>The former soldier’s attorney, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, has
lodged a motion with a federal court in the eastern
district of Virginia calling for her to be set free more
than 11 months after she was detained.</p>
<p>Manning is being held at the Alexandria detention
center after she refused to testify before a federal
grand jury investigating <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/wikileaks"
data-link-name="auto-linked-tag"
data-component="auto-linked-tag">WikiLeaks</a> and its
founder Julian Assange.</p>
<p>In December the UN’s special rapporteur on torture,
Nils Melzer, <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/31/chelsea-manning-us-torture-un-official-wikileaks"
data-link-name="in body link">denounced</a> Manning’s
ongoing incarceration as itself a form of torture. In
addition to being jailed the former soldier is also
being heavily penalized financially.</p>
<p>For every day she refuses to testify, she is being
fined $1,000. The total has already reached about
$230,000.</p>
<p>In the <a
href="https://www.releasechelsea.com/files/Motion_to_Release_Chelsea_Manning.pdf"
data-link-name="in body link">motion</a> for release,
Meltzer-Cohen decries Manning’s prolonged incarceration
as a form of unlawful “punitive sanction” on the grounds
that it is serving no purpose because the inmate will
never be coerced into testifying.</p>
<p>As the motion puts it: “Over the last decade Chelsea
Manning has shown unwavering resolve in the face of
censure, punishment, and even threats of violence. As Ms
Manning’s resolve not to testify has been unwavering,
and as her moral conviction has become only more
developed since her confinement, her incarceration is
not serving its only permissible purpose.”</p>
<p>Manning, who spent <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/17/chelsea-manning-released-from-prison"
data-link-name="in body link">seven years</a> in
military prison for her massive intelligence dump to
WikiLeaks in 2010, refused to testify to the grand jury
on a point of principle.</p>
<p>In a statement she explained her position was based on
“my long standing belief that grand juries, as they
function in the contemporary era, are often used by
federal prosecutors to harass and disrupt political
opponents and activists through secrecy, coercion, and
jailing without trial”.</p>
<p>She added: “No matter how much you punish me, I will
remain confident in my decision.”</p>
<p>Manning initially refused to testify before a grand
jury in the eastern district of Virginia in March 2019.
She was called to ask questions about WikiLeaks and
Assange who had been the subject of a secret US
government investigation for years.</p>
<p><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/feb/18/julian-assange-australian-mps-uk-boris-johnson-block-us-extradition"
data-link-name="in body link">Assange</a> is now being
held in Belmarsh prison in London. He faces extradition
proceedings to the US after a grand jury returned 18
charges against him relating to receiving secret
diplomatic and military documents.</p>
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