Whistleblower Chelsea Manning released after nearly seven years in prison

Chelsea Manning, earlier known as Bradley Manning, convicted for leaking classified US military information was released today after serving nearly seven years of a 35-year sentence. The term that was originally supposed to end in 2045 was commuted by Former President Barack Obama earlier this year.

Manning, a Wikileaks’ contributor, had been convicted by court-martial under the Espionage Act, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and other offences. A former intelligence analyst, Private Manning was deployed in Iraq in 2010, where she gained access to the classified files. The leaked documents included the video of a US Army Apache helicopter firing on a group of people resulting in the death of two Reuters’ employees, information on detainees in Guantanamo Bay and important diplomatic cables.

According to The New York Times, her release will be the end of one of the most extraordinary criminal cases in American history involving leakage of government secrets. 

Earlier prosecutors had charged her with ‘aiding the enemy’ under the Espionage Act, almost equivalent to treason, while claiming that terror groups like Al Qaeda could use the aforementioned documents against the military. She was later acquitted of that charge, but was found guilty on multiple other counts.

Obama had justified the commute saying that Manning had served ‘a tough prison sentence,’ the longest sentence a whistleblower has ever served in the US.