Chelsea Manning posts first image after release from prison

Chelsea Manning, the transgender US soldier convicted of espionage for providing national security secrets to Wikileaks, posted the first photo of her new look as a woman, just one day after she was released from a military prison, the media reported.

The photo of her with short-cropped hair, bright red lipstick and a dark outfit with a plunging neckline, was posted on Thursday on her Twitter and Instagram accounts @xychelsea87, ABC News reported.

The 29-year-old Oklahoma native included the caption, "Okay, so here I am everyone!!", reports NBC News.

Manning was released early Wednesday from the US Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Manning was convicted in 2013 for seven years by a military tribunal under the Espionage and Computer Fraud and Abuse Acts and sentenced to 35 years in prison for releasing approximately 750,000 documents to WikiLeaks, of which only small amount of those documents ultimately lead to her conviction.

Manning at that time was a 22-year-old Army private named Bradley Manning, reports ABC News.

The information she disclosed included low level battlefield reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, evidence of civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantanamo prison camp detainee profiles and US diplomatic correspondence.

Former US President Barack Obama commuted her sentence to time served three days before he left office. Her imprisonment was longer than any whistleblower in US history.

Days after Manning was sentenced, she came out as transgender on August 22, 2013.

Army officials on Tuesday said Manning will remain on active duty in a special status after her scheduled release from prison.

In that status she will be unpaid, but will be legally entitled to military medical care.

--IANS

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