US whistleblower Chelsea Manning has been jailed for contempt of court after refusing to give evidence to a grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks.<\/p>\n
Sending her to a federal prison on Friday, US District Judge Claude Hilton said she will remain behind bars until she testifies, or until the grand jury finishes its inquiry.<\/p>\n
The former US Army intelligence analyst told the judge she \"will accept whatever you bring upon me\".<\/p>\n
Manning, 31, has said she objects to the secrecy of the grand jury process, and that she already revealed everything she knows at her court martial.<\/p>\n
Her lawyers had asked that she be sent to home confinement instead of jail, because of medical complications she faces.<\/p>\n
The judge said US Marshals can handle her treatment needs.<\/p>\n
Manning was convicted of espionage and other offences by court-martial in 2013.<\/p>\n
She leaked some 700,000 documents, videos, diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts to WikiLeaks while she was an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2010.<\/p>\n
Sentenced to 35 years in jail, she was released in 2017 after former US president Barack Obama commuted her sentence.<\/p>\n
Previously known as Private Bradley Manning, the former soldier now chooses to identify as a woman and underwent gender transition while in jail.<\/p>\n
Among the documents she released were millions of diplomatic cables and a 2007 video of a US helicopter in Baghdad firing on a group of civilians that killed two Reuters photographers and wounded two children.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Manning appeared before the same grand jury, in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, but refused to answer any questions.<\/p>\n
The day before, Manning told The Associated Press that she didn't know what case she was being called to testify about and said: \"Grand juries are terrible, to say the least.\"<\/p>\n
Manning's support committee, Chelsea Resists!, called the grand jury system \"dangerous and undemocratic\".<\/p>\n
\"Grand juries operate in secret, allowing the government to retaliate against activists and dissidents behind closed doors,\" said a statement from the committee released by Manning's lawyers.\"<\/p>\n
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