(Updated at 6:05 p.m.) After trying to kill herself in the Alexandria jail on Wednesday, Chelsea Manning was released from custody by a federal judge on Thursday.
Her Friday court date to plead for release has also been canceled.
BREAKING: A federal judge has ordered the release of Chelsea Manning: "the court finds Ms. Manning's appearance before the Grand Jury is no longer needed, in light of which her detention no longer serves any coercive purpose." pic.twitter.com/8krTFahWZM
— The Appeal (@theappeal) March 12, 2020
Manning is recovering after the suicide attempt, according to Sheriff Dana Lawhorne.
“There was an incident at approximately 12:11 p.m. [Wednesday] at the Alexandria Detention Center involving inmate Chelsea Manning,” Lawhorne told ALXnow. “It was handled appropriately by our professional staff and Ms. Manning is safe.”
It is not clear how the 32-year-old Manning tried to kill herself or in which hospital she is recovering.
In her last tweet on Feb. 19, the soldier-turned-Wikileaks-whistleblower posted about the motion for her release.
especially when it feels like the world will end tomorrow 🌎🔥
we must plant the seeds of hope today 🌱🌈💕https://t.co/SzQaLGIjoJ
— Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) February 19, 2020
Manning has been in the Alexandria jail for more than a year on civil contempt charges for refusing to testify against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, to whom she disclosed 750,000 classified documents in 2010.
In 2013, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for espionage, and four years later her sentence was commuted by President Obama. She was released in 2017, and the following year unsuccessfully ran in the Democratic primary for Maryland’s U.S. Senate seat, but was jailed again last May for refusing to testify before a grand jury.
Chelsea Manning, who has been jailed since 2019 for refusing to testify about WikiLeaks, tried to take her own life, her legal team says. The former intelligence analyst is recovering in a hospital. https://t.co/SU9YO9bkxo
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 12, 2020
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