UN official Nils Melzer says US is torturing Chelsea Manning with detention

Justine Coleman
The Hill
Tue, 31 Dec 2019 19:28 UTC

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Chelsea Manning

A United Nations official says the U.S. is torturing Chelsea Manning with detention, in a letter to the U.S. government released Tuesday.

Nils Melzer, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, accused the U.S. of torture by holding Manning in "civil contempt" of court for refusing to testify in front of a grand jury, in a letter sent in November.

Melzer says in the letter that the former Army intelligence analyst is being subjected to "an open-ended, progressively severe measure of coercion fulfilling all the constitutive elements of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

The U.N. official said he is concerned about the alleged "coercive measures" used against Manning because of her "previous conviction and ill-treatment in detention." He warned that Manning's detention could cause post-traumatic symptoms and other severe mental and physical consequences.

Melzer requested the government provide factual and legal grounds for detaining Manning, explain how the alleged coercive measures align with international human rights laws and clarify the efforts to ensure Manning's physical and mental wellbeing. He said if his assessment is correct, Manning should be released immediately, and her fines should be canceled or reimbursed.

The former analyst was sent to prison for seven years until President Obama commuted her sentence. She was detained again in May of this year after refusing to testify in a potential case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, until she either complies or the grand jury term expires in November 2020.

Manning is being fined $500 per day for the first 30 days of detainment and $1,000 per day after that.

Assange is charged of conspiring with Manning to help her release U.S. state secrets to WikiLeaks in 2010.

Comment: The Guardian writes:

Manning, who was detained on 16 May after refusing to testify before a grand jury, is currently being held at the Alexandria detention center in Virginia until she agrees to give evidence or until the grand jury's term expires in November next year. She also faces fines currently running at $1,000 a day.

[...]

Mannings' lawyers have argued that her detention is "for refusing to comply with a grand jury is pointless, punitive, and cruel" and warned that she is not likely to change her mind.

In a letter released in March when Manning was first sent back to jail, her lawyers warned: "Chelsea has clearly stated her moral objection to the secretive and oppressive grand jury process. We are Chelsea's friends and fellow organizers, and we know her as a person who is fully committed to her principles."

They warned US authorities that if they "believe that subjecting Chelsea to more punishment will change her mind, they are gravely mistaken".

Virginia prosecutors are determined to force Manning to testify in what they hope will be an eventual trial of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.

Assange has been charged with conspiring with Manning to break into military computers to help her transmit a vast trove of US state secrets to the open information organization in 2010 which then published them, causing an international uproar.

Manning was subsequently sentenced to 35 years in military prison in 2011. Manning spent seven years behind bars before Barack Obama commuted her sentence in 2017.