Chelsea Manning attempts suicide in jail, her lawyers confirm

Former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning is recovering in hospital after attempting suicide on Wednesday, her lawyers have confirmed, according to the BBC.

The publication also reports that police from the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office have confirmed Manning was involved in "an incident" at a detention center in Virginia where she has been held since last May.

In a statement, Alexandria Sheriff Dana Lawhorne said, per the BBC: "There was an incident at approximately 12:11 pm today at the Alexandria Adult Detention Center involving inmate Chelsea Manning. It was handled appropriately by our professional staff and Ms. Manning is safe."

Manning, 32, was jailed last year following her refusal to testify before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks.

Credit: 1004

Andy Stepanian, a spokesman for Manning's legal team, said she refused to "participate in a secret grand jury process that she sees as highly susceptible to abuse".

"Her actions today evidence the strength of her convictions, as well as the profound harm she continues to suffer as a result of her 'civil' confinement," Mr. Stepanian continued.

According to The Times, her legal team confirmed she was still scheduled to appear at a hearing before Judge Anthony Trenga in Alexandria, Virginia, on Friday.

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Back in 2013, Manning was charged with espionage for leaking secret military files to Wikileaks. Some years later, in 2017, the then-US President Barack Obama commuted her sentence.

But when Manning did not cooperate with a grand jury she was imprisoned again in May 2019 for contempt of court. She refused to answer any further questions on Wikileaks from investigators, as she had already given her testimony during the 2013 trial.

US prosecutors continue to investigate Wikileaks, a whistleblowing platform founded by Julian Assange, 10 years after it published hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents and videos from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.