© Former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning speaks to reporters outside the US federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia on March 8, 2019.

A U.S. federal judge on Thursday ordered that former U.S. Army soldier and WikiLeaks source Chelsea Manning should be immediately released from prison, where she was being held for refusing to testify in an ongoing U.S. investigation of WikiLeaks.

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An entry in the U.S. District Court docket in Alexandria, Virginia, signed by Judge Anthony Trenga, also rejected a request by Manning to cancel fines which he had imposed for her refusal to testify and ordered her to pay fines totaling $256,000.

A detention hearing for Manning scheduled for Friday was canceled.

"Needless to say we are relieved and ask that you respect her privacy while she gets on her feet," Manning's defense team said in an emailed statement.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for Manning's defense team said Manning had attempted to commit suicide and had been taken to hospital, where she was recovering.

Spokesman Andy Stepanian said that in spite of her imprisonment and the imposition of financial sanctions, Manning remained "unwavering in her refusal to participate in a secret grand jury process that she sees as highly susceptible to abuse."

Prior to her recent incarceration for refusing to testify, Manning had served seven years in a military prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of U.S. military messages and cables to WikiLeaks, before being released on the order of President Barack Obama.

WikiLeaks, an internet-based "dead letter drop" for leakers of classified or sensitive information, was founded by Australian citizen Julian Assange in 2006.

Assange is being held in a London prison as British courts consider a request from U.S. prosecutors for his extradition to the United States. He is wanted on charges of conspiring with Manning to hack into a Pentagon computer system containing classified materials.

(REUTERS)

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