Defense Attorney Files Complaint Alleging Mistreatment of Bradley Manning

[Joanne98]

The attorney for suspected WikiLeaks source Pfc. Bradley Manning filed a formal complaint this week over Manning’s treatment at the Marine Corps brig where he is being detained.

Attorney David E. Coombs filed the complaint on Wednesday, the day after Manning was abruptly placed on suicide watch by the commander of the U.S. Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Virginia. During the suicide watch, Manning was confined to his cell around the clock, while a guard sat outside watching him. He was stripped to his underwear, and his prescription eyeglasses were taken from him. The latter were returned only during the one hour he was permitted to watch television and when he was permitted to read, Coombs wrote on his blog.

The commander removed Manning from suicide watch on Thursday, but Coombs said the development was only the latest issue in Manning’s 7 months of highly-restrictive pre-trial confinement, where he’s been awaiting a mental health hearing to determine if the court martial case will proceed to the next step. Manning has spent most of that time as a maximum custody detainee under prevention-of-injury, or POI, watch. “Like suicide risk, he is held in solitary confinement, Coombs wrote on his blog Friday. “For 23 hours per day, he will sit in his cell.”

In his Article 138 complaint, Coombs asked that Manning’s custody level be lowered from maximum to medium security, and that he be removed from the POI watch.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/01/bradley-manning-mistreatment/