Chelsea Manning asks President Obama to commute her remaining prison sentence
Chelsea Manning has asked President Obama to commute her remaining sentence to the time she has served already.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that the former soldier who is serving 35 years in prison for passing classified documents to WikiLeaks had asked the current President to commute her sentence.
She made the request in a petition dated 10 November which was passed to the New York Times by Manning’s attorney.
After being moved to solitary confinement, Manning attempted suicide on 4 October.
She noted her suicide attempt in the petition, as well as taking responsibility for her actions.
Manning did say though that she was battling gender dysphoria at the time she leaked the documents, and that she was deployed in Iraq.
“I am not asking for a pardon of my conviction,” she wrote.
“The sole relief I am asking for is to be released from military prison after serving six years of confinement as a person who did not intend to harm the interests of the United States or harm any service members,” the statement adds.
The petition also included a letter of support from Daniel Ellsberg, who released classified Vietnam War history, or the ‘Pentagon Papers’, as well as former military commissions chief prosecutor Morris Davis and Glenn Greenwald a legal commentator.
Manning attempted to take her life a second time last month whilst in solitary confinement, a punishment for the first attempt at ending her life in July.
Ms. Manning’s 35-year sentence is the longest ever imposed for providing government secrets to the public.
