Manning, who was detained on 16 May after refusing to testify before a grand jury, is currently being held at the Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia until she agrees to give evidence or until the grand jury’s term expires in November next year. She also faces fines currently running at $1,000 a day.
In the letter, Melzer writes: “The practise of coercive deprivation of liberty for civil contempt … involves the intentional infliction of progressively severe mental and emotional suffering for the purposes of coercion and intimidation at the order of judicial authorities.”
Victims of prolonged solitary confinement have developed hallucinations that don't stop when the person is released, and the UN rapporteur on torture said Manning’s detention “is not a lawful sanction but an open-ended, progressively severe coercive measure amounting to torture & should be discontinued & abolished without delay.”
Contact Kamala Harris at [email protected]
Dianne Feinstein at feinstein.senate.gov
and Chelsea Manning at
Chelsea Elizabeth Manning
A0101826
William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center
2001 Mill Road, Alexandria, Virginia 22314
more information: www.bradleymanning.org