The Federal Government of Australia is preparing to refuse entry to whistleblower Chelsea Manning for her speaking tour at the Sydney Opera House which was scheduled to start on Sunday.
The trans-gender activist who recently lost a long-shot bid for a US Senate seat in Maryland is scheduled to speak at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday and has subsequent events in Australia and New Zealand.
Chelsea Manning, the controversial whistleblower who leaked nearly 750,000 classified US documents to Wikileaks, could have her Australian visa cancelled ahead of an upcoming speaking tour, her tour organizer said on Thursday.
The Australian organizer of her speaking tour, Think Inc, has written to supporters asking them to lobby the newly installed Immigration Minister, David Coleman.
“We have just received a Notice of Intention to Consider Refusal under s501 of the Migration Act from the Australian government in regards to Chelsea’s Visa,” the company’s director Suzi Jamil wrote to supporters.
In a letter sent to the Minister for Immigration, the leader of the Australian Greens party, Richard Di Natale, has said that he is “deeply disappointed” to hear that Manning’s entrance to the country may be refused.
The former soldier-turned-whistleblower spent seven years behind bars, including 11 months in solitary confinement, for sending nearly 750,000 classified military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks.
The 30-year-old former Army intelligence analyst was sentenced to 35 years in prison but was released in May 2017 after former President Barack Obama commuted her sentence in January of that year.
“We have just received a Notice of Intention to Consider Refusal … in regards to Chelsea’s Visa,” Think Inc.’s director Suzi Jamil wrote.“We are seeking letters of support to send to the Minister for Immigration in order for him to reconsider his decision”.
> Shatabdi Sarker Poushi
Australian Government to Ban US whistleblower Chelsea Manning
