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Hi,
Breaking news: a top United Nations official just condemned the continuing imprisonment of Chelsea Manning as torture and called for her immediate release from a Virginia jail.1
Sign the petition to the judge to free whistleblower Chelsea Manning!
This is a major development. The UN’s special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment issued a scathing letter to the US government making it clear that incarcerating Chelsea Manning is a violation of international human rights laws.
The letter calls the government’s treatment of Chelsea an “open-ended, progressively severe coercive measure amounting to torture ...[that] should be discontinued & abolished without delay,” and it warns that “victims of prolonged coercive confinement have demonstrated post-traumatic symptoms and other severe and persistent mental and physical health consequences.”
In the years since Chelsea was arrested for blowing the whistle on U.S. actions during the Iraq War, she was held in solitary confinement, denied access to medical care and lawyers, and forced to dress and wear her hair as a man.2
Demand Progress members donated more than $50,000 to her legal defense fund, and that helped secure her release in 2017. But in 2019 she was jailed again for refusing to go along with government retaliation against activists and whistleblowers.
Chelsea Manning is being tortured. Right now. While you’re reading this. We can’t let this continue. The good news is that a letter like this from a high profile United Nations official could be game changing. But we need to put pressure on the judge right now.
Sign the petition: tell the government to stop torturing Chelsea Manning and set her free.
Please forward this widely and tell everyone you know to sign the petition to the judge. It really does make a difference, and we’re keeping Chelsea updated on the signature count, which helps lift her spirits.
Thanks for taking action,
Tihi and the team at Demand Progress
Sources:
1. Guardian, “Top UN official accuses US of torturing Chelsea Manning,” December 31, 2019.
2. The Intercept, “The True Scandal Of 2016 Was The Torture Of Chelsea Manning,” November 8, 2016.
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