Whistleblower Chelsea Manning returned to jail Thursday, seven days after her release, after she was found in contempt for refusing to testify about WikiLeaks before a grand jury, The Independent reported.
In attendance at a Virginia court proceeding, Manning was ordered remanded by the U.S. Marshals Service and was headed to prison, the report said.
In addition, she will be fined $500 per day after 30 days, the newspaper reported, which will rise to $1,000 per day after 60 days.
Prior to today’s action, Manning had served two months at William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Centre on contempt charges on the same issue, The Independent reported, but was released last Friday after the grand jury term expired.
In this detention, the report said, Manning faces up to 18 months in prison, the length of the grand jury term, unless she agrees to cooperate with the investigation sooner.
Manning has previously said she would rather stay in jail "forever" than testify to the grand jury, the newspaper reported, saying the subpoena was “an attempt to place me back in confinement.”
While the subject under discussion of the empaneled grand jury is secret, The Independent reported, it has been convened at the same federal court where prosecutors recently filed charges against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange.
Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013 for the unauthorised disclosure of classified materials made public by WikiLeaks in 2010, the newspaper reported. Her sentence was commuted by former President Barack Obama in 2017.
One of Manning’s attorney’s, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, said Thursday: "In 2010, Chelsea took a principled decision to let the world see the true nature of modern asymmetric warfare. It is telling that the U.S. has always been concerned with the disclosure of those documents than their damning substance,” the report said.
Assange was indicted in April on a computer hacking charge for his role in Manning’s disclosure of those documents, the report said, and is currently in the UK where he is fighting extradition to the United States to face charges.
– WN.com, Jack Durschlag
Photo:
AP / Tim Travers Hawkins
