Former U.S. Army analyst Chelsea Manning was hospitalized after a suicide attempt in a Virginia prison. Manning has been locked up since May because she refused to answer questions from a grand jury looking into the release of classified documents to Wikileaks.
"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 — a coercive practice that the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, recently said violates international law," her legal team said in a statement.
She is due in court on Friday (March 13) for a hearing on a motion to terminate the civil contempt sanctions. In addition to being jailed, Manning has also been fined $1,000 per day, and the total is nearing $500,000.
"In spite of those sanctions -- which have so far included over a year of so-called 'coercive' incarceration and nearly half a million dollars in threatened fines -- she remains unwavering in her refusal to participate in a secret grand jury process that she sees as highly susceptible to abuse," her lawyers said.
Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013 for leaking military intelligence records to the Wikileaks. President Barack Obama commuted her sentence in 2017.
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