American activist and whistle-blower Chelsea Manning will sit down with Louis Theroux on Tuesday night in the latest episode of his BBC show Louis Theroux Interviews.
The hit show has returned with a second series as it explores the careers and lives of public figures across six documentaries.
Manning, a former US soldier, was detained in 2010 and charged with leaking classified information. She was convicted in 2013 and released in 2017 when her sentence was commuted by president Barack Obama.
But who is Manning and why was she imprisoned?
Who is Chelsea Manning?
Chelsea Manning made the largest disclosure of private information into the public realm in US history.
Assigned in 2009 to an army unit in Iraq as an intelligence analyst, Manning had access to classified databases, and leaked videos of American soldiers opening fire and killing a number of people, including two Reuters journalists.
Collateral Murder, a video that was released at the time, was only the beginning. Between April 2010 and April 2011, Manning went on to disclose more than 251,000 diplomatic cables and more than 482,000 army reports, commonly known as the Iraq War Logs and Afghan War Diary through WikiLeaks and its media partners.
A trans woman, Manning said in 2013 that she had a female gender identity since childhood and wanted to be known as Chelsea Manning.
Why was Chelsea Manning imprisoned?
Manning was detained in May 2010 and charged with 22 offences, including theft, espionage and helping the enemy, all potential capital crimes in the US. She pleaded guilty to 10 charges in February 2013.
The trial on remaining charges started on June 3, 2013, which was 10 years ago.
Except for helping the enemy, Manning was found guilty on July 30 of 17 of the original charges. At the maximum-security military facility known as the US Disciplinary Barracks, she was given a 35-year sentence.
Why was Chelsea Manning freed?
On January 17, 2017, President Barack Obama shortened her sentence, allowing her to serve almost seven years in prison beginning with the day of her arrest. The day of Manning’s release was May 17, 2017.
Obama at the time said Manning served “a tough but adequate prison sentence”.
“I feel very comfortable that justice has been served. Let’s be clear: Chelsea Manning has served a tough prison sentence,” Obama said, while rejecting critics who argued his action would encourage espionage and future leaks of classified information.
“The notion that the average person who is thinking about disclosing vital classified information would think that it goes unpunished … I don’t think would get that impression from the sentence that Chelsea Manning has served.”
