29 May, 2017
Pvt. Chelsea Manning, the transgender soldier convicted of giving classified government materials to WikiLeaks, was released from a Kansas military prison early Wednesday after serving seven years of her 35-year sentence. The leak, which Manning said she provided "to show the true cost of war", is considered to be the largest of its kind in USA history.
"Manning is statutorily entitled to medical care while on excess leave in an active duty status, pending final appellate review", said Foster, the Army spokesman.
"I am looking forward to so much!" said a statement released by Manning through her legal team, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Friends and family have organised a campaign to raise funds for Manning on her release, which has so far collected more than US$147,000 (€132,242). For security and privacy reasons, Manning is holding no press conferences or other public events.
Chelsea Manning, the transgender United States soldier convicted of espionage for providing national security secrets to Wikileaks, was released from a military prison on Wednesday.
The Oklahoma native was convicted of 20 counts including theft, computer fraud and six violations of act. "The leaks also revealed disparaging comments by USA diplomats about America's foreign allies, causing embarrassment to the Obama administration".
"She went to trial, that due process was carried out, that she took responsibility for her crime, that the sentence that she received was very disproportionate relative to what other leakers had received", Obama said days later, defending his decision. She was subjected to male grooming standards and had to sue to receive transition-related hormone therapy.
"She has experienced trauma over the past seven years of her confinement and the trauma from those experiences won't just evaporate the day she walks out of prison", said American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Chase Strangio, who represented Manning.
Manning's supporters claimed that she attempted to commit suicide many times during her sentence. "We can all finally truly celebrate the strength and heroism she has shown in surviving and sharing her truth and life with all of us".
She released a statement on Twitter the week before her release: "Freedom was only a dream, and hard to imagine".
He described Manning's sentence as "very disproportionate" although Mr Obama's successor, Donald Trump, branded the soldier an "ungrateful traitor" who "should never have been released".
The wider world that Manning left in 2010, when she was first detained, is dramatically different as a result of her whistleblowing.
After the 2013 sentencing, the ex-intelligence agent changed her name to Chelsea Manning and identified as transgender. After her parents' divorce, Manning moved with her mother to Wales, where she repressed her sexuality and was mocked for her effeminate ways.
The military was therefore keen on keeping her release low-key.
