United States President Barack Obama has commuted the
sentence of Chelsea Manning, who is serving 35 years behind bars for giving
classified US data and documents to Wikileaks, allowing
her to go free nearly three decades early.
According
to the commutation granted on Tuesday, Manning would now be released on May 17.The
transgender soldier has been lodged in prison after being convicted in August
2013. She also attempted suicide twice last year.
The
White House said after the commutation, Manning, a military analyst, would now
be released on May 17, 2017. She was sentenced
to 35 years of imprisonment on charges of illegally obtaining and passing on
the classified documents to WikiLeaks.
According
to the White House, Manning's offences included one specification of wrongful
and wanton publication to the internet Intelligence
belonging to the United States, five specifications of stealing, purloining or
knowingly converting US government ecords.
t
also included six specifications of wilful communication of information
relating to the national defence, one specification of wilful communication
of information in unlawful possession; and one specification of wilful
communication of information relating to the national
defence by exceeding authorised access to a US government computer.
WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange has welcomed the decision, while calling for an end to a
'war on whistleblowers'.
He
said Manning should never have been convicted and described her as 'a hero,
whose bravery should have been applauded not condemned'.
However,
the White House ruled out a similar commutation to Edward Snowden, who is
currently on a political asylum in Russia. --
PTI
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