Wales v USA Vigil For Detained Whistleblower Bradley Manning

The latest local protest over the ongoing American detention of whistleblower Bradley Manning will take place before the Wales v USA Rugby League World Cup game in town.

Previous protests have taken place over the A483 (pictured) , outside banks in town and in Queens Square.

This latest event coincides with the Rugby League World Cup in which the US, Wales, England and Ireland are all competing. On Sunday 3rd of November a group of Bradley Manning supporters will be taking part in a ‘Pack a Scrum of Solidarity’ event, where a vigil will be held from 11.30am outside the USA vs Wales first round match at the Racecourse, followed by a ‘social’ at the Commercial pub in town.

A spokesperson told us “At the vigil Manning supporters will encourage others to bring to mind this young person who was born in the US, spent formative years in Wales and who is now incarcerated for telling us about the nature of the wars being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The day after another long time supporter of Private Manning and member of Wrexham Peace & Justice Forum, Genny Bove, will appear at Bristol Crown Court accused of ‘causing danger to road users’ by displaying banners in support of Manning on a footbridge over the M32 motorway back in May.

Genny said: “At the last hearing, the duty solicitor informed me that both she and the prosecutor agreed that the case against me was ‘a nonsense’ with no evidence to support the charge, but in spite of this the prosecutor refused to drop it and as a result the case will now go to Crown Court to be heard at great expense to the public purse.”

“It’s hard not to reach the conclusion that my arrest and prosecution are political, not least because the police were happy to give me back my peace flag but refused to return my banners that read ‘TRUTH ON TRIAL’ and ‘FREE BRADLEY MANNING’.

Manning was arrested in May 2010 in Iraq on suspicion of having passed classified material to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, and was recently sentenced to 35 years in US prisons.