The legal team of whistleblower Chelsea Manning has confirmed that she attempted suicide last week.
Although she remains imprisoned on a 35-year sentence, Manning is now in good spirits.
"I am okay. I'm glad to be alive," she said in a message on Twitter on Monday night.
"Thank you all for your love," Manning added. "I will get through this."
Last week, unverified reports said Manning had been rushed to the hospital on the morning of July 5.
TMZ reported, according to an unnamed internal source, that Manning had attempted to hang herself. This was unconfirmed, although a U.S. Army spokesperson told CNN that she had been hospitalized.
On Monday evening, Manning's attorneys Chase Strangio, Vincent Ward and Nancy Hollander released a statement verifying the reports.
"Last week, Chelsea made a decision to end her life. Her attempt to take her own life was unsuccessful," Manning's legal team said.
"She knows that people have questions about how she is doing and she wants everyone to know that she remains under close observation by the prison and expects to remain on this status for the next several weeks," they added.
When the story was leaked to the press on July 6 by the anonymous Army official, Manning's legal team was furious, not only because inmates' medical status is confidential, but also because Manning's attorneys had not been informed of their own client's health.
Nancy Hollander, lead attorney on Manning defense team, said in a statement on July 6, “We’re shocked and outraged that an official at Leavenworth contacted the press with private confidential medical information about Chelsea Manning yet no one at the Army has given a shred of information to her legal team."
Hollander accused the Army of obstructing her communications with Manning.
"After not connecting with Chelsea for over a week, we were relieved to speak with her this morning," Strangio, Ward and Hollander said on Monday.
"For us, hearing Chelsea’s voice after learning that she had attempted to take her life last week was incredibly emotional. She is someone who has fought so hard for so many issues we care about and we are honored to fight for her freedom and medical care," they added.
The attorneys said Manning "would have preferred to keep her private medical information private, and instead focus on her recovery."
They condemned "the government’s gross breach of confidentiality in disclosing her personal health information to the media," noting that it "has created the very real concern that they may continue their unauthorized release of information about her publicly without warning."
Manning is imprisoned in the Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks in Kansas.
She is serving 35 years in prison for leaking more than 700,000 classified documents to whistleblowing journalism organization WikiLeaks.
Among the leaked materials were videos that show U.S. pilots massacring more than 100 civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq.
From prison, Manning has been outspoken about political issues. She writes regular columns for The Guardian. Her most recent pieces are about the end of the U.S. military’s ban on transgender officers, the Orlando shooting and the government’s brutal crackdown on whistleblowers.
Manning's legal team concluded a statement on July 8 writing, "Please continue to send Chelsea your good thoughts and messages of support.”
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