LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) – Attorneys for the transgender soldier imprisoned for sending classified information to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks are confirming that her hospitalization last week was due to an attempted suicide.
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Manning’s lawyers added that the soldier “knows that people have questions about how she is doing” and will remain under close observation at the lockup for several weeks. “I will get through this”.
Her lawyers accused the U.S. military of violating her privacy by revealing that she had been admitted to hospital.
The soldier’s legal team released a statement on Monday detailing that Manning’s “attempt to take her own life was unsuccessful”.
The statement went on to say that the lawyers had unexpectedly lost touch with Manning last week and criticized the military prison for allowing her medical information to leak.
An Army spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Last week, Chelsea made a decision to end her life”.
Manning, who was born male but identifies as a woman, in May appealed to a military court to overturn her court-martial conviction.
“She is someone who has fought so hard for so many issues we care about and we are honoured to fight for her freedom and medical care”.
Private Manning – who went by the name Bradley prior to beginning a gender transition process – was first arrested in May 2010 and ultimately charged with 22 offences, including having “wantonly [caused] to be published on the internet intelligence belonging to the U.S. government, having knowledge that intelligence published on the internet is accessible to the enemy”, an offence that could have potentially provoked the death penalty.
“I am deeply concerned that like so many policies, the impact of this change won’t penetrate the prison walls”, she wrote. “This core identity is then stripped away and our birth assigned sex is imposed on us?”
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The 28-year-old was last year approved for hormone therapy after being diagnosed with gender dysphoria – the sense of physically being the wrong gender.
