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URGENT: The U.S.
government systematically abused whistleblower Chelsea
Manning until she tried to take her own life. Now they’re
trying to charge her for it. Sign the petition to stop this
inhumane punishment.
After years of extreme mistreatment, having been held in
conditions that the UN considers to be torture, Chelsea
Manning, the Guardian columnist and whistleblower who has
been in prison for years serving a 35 year sentence for
exposing some of the U.S. government’s worst abuses,
attempted to take her own life July 5th, 2016.
Now, Army officials have informed her that she is facing
serious new charges directly related to her suicide attempt.
This is an outrage. Click here to sign the petition telling
the government not to charge Chelsea Manning with a crime
for her own suicide attempt.
Chelsea called supporters on the phone to inform us of the
new charges. They include:
1) Resisting the force cell move team (Chelsea was
unconscious when this team arrived, which makes this charge
particularly absurd.)
2) Prohibited property (For the items she used to
attempt to take her own life.)
3) Conduct which threatens (For somehow putting the
prison at risk while attempting to take her own life,
quietly, in her own cell.)
If convicted of these bizarre “administrative
offenses,” that are effectively charging her for
attempting to end her life, she is facing indefinite
solitary confinement for the rest of her prison term
(another 30 years), “maximum security” classification (in
the same facility), and nearly a decade before she can ever
be classified as a “minimum security” prisoner.
The government has
threatened Chelsea with torture like this before, but we
mobilized and kept her out of solitary confinement. Now we
need to do it again. Click here to sign the petition
demanding that the government drop these now charges and
provide her with adequate medical care.
It is unnecessarily cruel to threaten Chelsea with
additional punishment while in this very vulnerable state.
The government is trying to silence her important voice––for
good. Chelsea has been systematically mistreated by the U.S.
government since she was first taken into custody in 2010,
including long stretches of extreme solitary confinement
even before she had ever been convicted.
Chelsea is a transgender woman being forced to serve out her
sentence in an all-male prison, which is in itself
dehumanizing and exhausting emotionally. She is currently
being denied medical treatment for her gender dysphoria,
which experts have stated is the only course of treatment
through which she would no longer be suicidal.
This is not the first time the government has harassed
Chelsea with outrageous charges while in prison. Last year,
they threatened her with indefinite solitary confinement for
minor “infractions” including possession of LGBTQ reading
materials and an expired tube of toothpaste. We gathered
more than 100,000 petition signatures in response, and the
outcry we generated kept her out of solitary. Now we need to
do it again.
Please, click here to
sign the petition, and then share and spread the word.
Chelsea is depending on us. We need everyone to speak out
right now.
Thanks so much, we’ll keep you posted on how Chelsea is
doing.
Best,
-Evan at Fight for the Future
Fight for the Future works to protect your rights in the
digital age.
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