Chelsea Manning may be facing an indefinite period of solitary confinement behind bars for “violation of custody rules.”
The US Army Soldier, arrested in 2010 for violating the Espionage Act after leaking 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks, has been sanctioned for having copies of Vanity Fair magazine and Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography in her cell, as well as “medicine misuse” – for having out-of-date toothpaste.
The Guardian, for whom Manning pens a column outlining her prison experiences, reports that the soldier’s legal team has criticised the US Army’s trumped-up charges as a form of harassment. The army private, who transitioned from male to female while under arrest, has been accused by officials of displaying “disrespect” for sweeping food onto the floor during dinner hours, for having horded “prohibited property” in printed materials, and for having toothpaste which is past “its expiration date of 9 April 2015.”
Manning now faces the maximum punishment for her alleged offences, an indeterminable sentence of time to be served in a solitary confinement cell in the maximum security Fort Leavenworth US Disciplinary Barracks in Kansas.
The “prohibited property” includes the memoir I am Malala, written by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, a novel about a transgender woman titled A Safe Girl to Love, the LGBT periodical Out Magazine, a copy of Cosmopolitan featuring an interview with Manning, as well as the Caitlyn Jenner issue of Vanity Fair.
This property was all confiscated, along with the ‘US Senate Report on Torture’. When asked how these documents violated Fort Leavenworth prison rules, the army public affairs refused to comment, the Guardian reports.
A disciplinary hearing, which will rule on the charges levelled against Manning, will be held on August 18th.
