Chelsea Manning: Obama reduces sentence of Wikileaks source

Manning declared her new identity the day after sentencing

US President Barack Obama has commuted Chelsea Manning's sentence for leaking documents to Wikileaks in 2010. 

The 29-year-old transgender US Army private, born Bradley Manning, will be freed on 17 May instead of her scheduled 2045 release.

Chelsea Manning, then Bradley, was convicted in 2013

She was sentenced to 35 years in 2013 for her role in leaking diplomatic cables to the anti-secrecy group. The leak was one of the largest breaches of classified material in US history.

The commutation reduces Manning's sentence but is not a pardon, which some campaigners had called for.

More on Chelsea Manning

• The turbulent life of Chelsea Manning
• Fair prosecution or overreach?
• When Bradley became Chelsea

Manning's uncle, Kevin Fox, referring to Chelsea as a man, told the BBC the family was "over the moon". "It's sooner than we expected - we didn't expect his case even to be looked at for another three or four years," Mr Fox said.

Manning lived for four years as a teenager in Wales. Her Welsh family said in a statement that they were "overjoyed", adding that there would "always be a welcome for her here in Wales".

Manning twice attempted suicide last year at the male military prison where she is being held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. She also went on a hunger strike last year, which she ended after the military agreed to provide her with gender transition treatment.

Mr Obama granted commutation of sentences to 209 individuals and pardons to 64 others, in one of his final acts as president.

Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who leaked information on mass surveillance programmes before fleeing the US, was not granted a pardon.

Russian authorities said on Wednesday that Mr Snowden had been granted a two-year extension to his temporary asylum in the country.