On March 12, U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga ordered the release of former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning—ending about a year of incarceration that she had served for refusing to testify to a grand jury, a Yahoo! News item noted.
Trenga left in place more than $256,000 in fines he imposed for her refusal to testify to the grand jury, which is investigating WikiLeaks.
The development occurred after Manning’s attorneys said March 11 that she had attempted suicide while at the Alexandra, Virginia, facility. Manning, who is transgender, had previously spent seven years in a military prison for delivering classified information to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Under federal law, a witness can only be jailed for civil contempt if there is a reasonable belief that incarceration will coerce the witness into testifying. If the jail time has no effect, said witness is supposed to be released.
The news item is at http://news.yahoo.com/judge-orders-chelsea-manning-released-220159101.html.