Lawyers for imprisoned transgender U.S. soldier Chelsea Manning have confirmed news reports that their client, who was convicted of disclosing classified information, was hospitalized last week after attempting suicide.
Manning's attorneys did not disclose details of the July 5 attempt at the Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, military prison where the 28-year-old is serving a 35-year prison term. The attempt was first reported last week. But in emails to news outlets Monday, lawyers accused the U.S. Army of breaching confidentiality protocol by publicly revealing that Manning had been hospitalized.
"She would have preferred to keep her private medical information private, and instead focus on her recovery," the lawyers said. They also noted that their client will remain under close observation in a prison lockup for several weeks.
Manning, a former military intelligence analyst in Iraq, was found guilty in 2013 by a military court of providing more than 700,000 classified documents, cables, video and battlefield accounts to the WikiLeaks organization. WikiLeaks then published the material, in what U.S. prosecutors called the biggest leak of classified U.S. information in history.
Manning's lawyers, who appealed the conviction earlier this year, have consistently claimed their client's prison sentence is excessive.
