Bradley Manning to be moved to new detention centre

Bradley Manning to be moved to new detention centre

Manning's detention conditions have been a breach of international standards

© AP GraphicsBank

20 April 2011

The US soldier accused of leaking documents to the Wikileaks organisation is being moved to a new detention centre following concerns over his treatment.

Private Bradley Manning, who is accused of providing documents to Wikileaks, is being moved from a maximum security military brig at the Quantico Marine Corps Base to a pre-trial facility in a new, medium-security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, according to a Pentagon spokesperson. 

While at Quantico he has been detained for 23 hours a day in a small cell, sometimes naked, and forbidden from exercising. 

“We believe sustained public pressure for the US government to uphold human rights in Bradley Manning’s case has contributed to this move” said Susan Lee, Amnesty International’s director for the Americas.  

“We hope Bradley Manning’s conditions will significantly improve at Fort Leavenworth, but we will be watching how he is treated very closely.  His conditions at Quantico have been a breach of international standards for humane treatment of an untried prisoner.” 

The organisation will be monitoring the conditions under which Bradley Manning is confined at Fort Leavenworth following the risk assessment Manning will undergo upon arrival there, which could last up to a week. 

“Until this assessment, it is still not possible to know how Bradley Manning is going to be treated, and what restrictions he will be under at the new detention centre,” said Susan Lee.

“Bradley Manning is entitled to be treated humanely and, as an unconvicted prisoner, to the presumption of innocence and to be held under the least restrictive detention conditions possible.”

Amnesty International has been raising the unacceptable conditions of Private Manning’s detention conditions with senior US officials throughout the yea