Imprisoned soldier may face solitary confinement due
to violations including possession of unapproved reading material and expired
toothpaste. Soldier and Guardian Columnist Chelsea Manning was denied access to
a prison legal library days before her prison court hearing. The hearing could
result to a decision leaving her in solitary confinement.
The army will schedule a hearing on her violations at
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas where Manning is currently held.
Manning was the source of the vast leak of US State
Secrets to WikiLeaks. A call to the US disciplinary barracks at Fort
Leavenworth was not immediately returned.
American Civil Liberties Union Attorney Chase
Strangio, who was handling Manning's legal dispute with the US military over
her health treatment in prison as a transgender woman, said it is possible Manning
was unfairly targeted.
“Chelsea has a growing voice in the public
discussion,” Stangio said, “and it would not surprise me were these charges
connected to who she is.”
Petitions against the military to release Manning and
drop her of her charges for the reported prison infractions had earned 64,000
signatures. According to Fight for the Future Campaign Director Evan Greer:
“This is a hearing where she’s facing a disciplinary
board that has the power to essentially remand her to indefinite solitary confinement,”
Greer told the Guardian. “She has to face this board without her attorneys
present. And now she’s being denied access to the resources to prepare a proper
defence.
“Those things being denied paint a really grim picture
of what it looks like the military’s trying to do to her, and should arouse
suspicion from the public and from journalists.”
