Bradley Manning, a 25-year-old gay soldier who was found guilty of leaking approximately 700 thousand secret documents about the American army to Wikileaks in 2013, later changed his name to Chelsea Manning.
Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013 in the case where he was accused of leaking secret military documents to Wikileaks. Manning's leak of confidential US documents to Wikileaks in 2010 is considered one of the biggest leaks in US history.
Manning was also discharged from the army for violating military honor and was barred from all salaries and bonuses.
Prosecutors had asked for a 60-year prison sentence for Manning. Manning, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison, served three and a half years of this sentence until 2013.
The prosecution claimed that Manning was aware that he was helping Al Qaeda when he leaked the documents, so he should be considered a traitor, not an informant. In Manning's defense, it was stated that he tried to make a difference by disclosing the documents.
Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning, December 17, 1987) is an American activist and whistleblower. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after disclosing to WikiLeaks nearly 750,000 classified, or unclassified but sensitive, military and diplomatic documents. She was imprisoned from 2010 until 2017 when her sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama. A trans woman, Manning stated in 2013 that she had a female gender identity since childhood and wanted to be known as Chelsea Manning.
At one of the hearings, Manning apologized for the "unintended consequences of his actions" and said, "I wanted to help people, not hurt them."
While working as an intelligence expert in Iraq, Manning leaked more than 7 thousand Iraq and Afghanistan war reports and secret government documents.
After the decision was announced, Amnesty International said in a statement: "Obama should commute the sentence given to Manning and investigate the violations he exposed."
Supporters of former CIA employee Edward Snowden, who leaked US intelligence information to The Guardian newspaper in England, said that the sentence given to Manning was sufficient reason for Snowden to continue to stay abroad. However, Snowden was tried in a civilian court, unlike Manning, who was tried in a military court.
In 2017, Bradley Edward Manning was released from prison as Chelsea Manning. After his release, he shared "freedom" themed posts on his Instagram account.
Manning, who changed her first name from Bradley to Chelsea after undergoing gender reassignment surgery in prison, was put in a men's prison in Kansas. The 29-year-old female soldier attempted suicide here twice and went on hunger strike once.
In her first post on her Instagram account after her release, Manning shared a photo of her sneakers and added the note "First steps to freedom."
Manning was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
In 2014, European Parliament Pirate Party Swedish MPs Amelia Andersdotter and Christian Engström, Icelandic Parliament Pirate Party MPs Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson, and Jón Þór Ólafsson informed the Nobel Committee in a joint application that the Nobel Peace Prize Candidates were Manning and Snowden.
Following Manning's leak, social movements began, especially in North Africa and the Middle East. Apart from this, another point that was noted was the involvement of private companies in interstate relations and politics and their ability to increase their activities to the extent that they had an impact on the foreign policy agenda.
It is stated that the completion of the troop withdrawal in the post-war period and the beginning of the examination of the Guantanamo camp was a situation spearheaded by Manning.