Chelsea Manning: Whistleblower released from jail despite refusing to testify before grand jury

WikiLeaks source Chelsea Manning has been released from jail
AP

Chelsea Manning has been released from jail despite refusing to testify before an investigation into WikiLeaks.

The ex-US intelligence analyst was held for 62 days after she refused answer questions before a federal jury.

She has now been released but will need to appear again before a grand jury on May 16.

Her lawyers say she will again refuse to answer questions and could face another prison term.

Ms Manning served seven years in a military prison for leaking documents to WikiLeaks before then-US President Barack Obama commuted the remainder of her 35-year sentence.

Earlier this week, Ms Manning's lawyers filed court papers arguing that she should not be jailed for civil contempt because she has proved she will stick to her principles and not testify no matter how long she is jailed.

Federal law only allows a recalcitrant witness to be jailed on civil contempt if there is a chance that the incarceration will coerce the witness into testifying.

If a judge were to determine that incarcerating Ms Manning were punitive rather than coercive, she would not be jailed.

"At this point, given the sacrifices she has already made, her strong principles, her strong and growing support community, and the disgrace attendant to her capitulation, it is inconceivable that Chelsea Manning will ever change her mind about her refusal to cooperate with the grand jury," her lawyers wrote.

Ms Manning filed an eight-page statement with the court on Monday outlining her resolve.

She wrote that "cooperation with this grand jury is simply not an option. Doing so would mean throwing away all of my principles, accomplishments, sacrifices, and erase decades of my reputation - an obvious impossibility," she wrote.

She also said she was suffering disproportionately in jail because of physical problems related with inadequate follow-up care to gender-reassignment surgery.

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