Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning, currently serving a 35-year sentence in military prison, now faces the possibility of indefinite solitary confinement for what her supporters and lawyers say are innocuous offenses—like possessing books and magazines related to LGBTQ issues and having expired toothpaste in her cell.
The Chelsea Manning Support Network revealed Tuesday that prison authorities are using the trumped up charges—including “medicine misuse” and “prohibited property”—to silence Manning, who has become a Guardian columnist and outspoken advocate for transgender, privacy, and prisoners’ rights during her incarceration.
Twenty-seven-year-old Manning has already been subjected to nearly a year of solitary confinement under U.S. military supervision—a form of punishment widely viewed as torture and condemned by the UN special rapporteur on torture. She is currently incarcerated at a maximum-security military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.