Free Peltier! Indian civil rights worker innocent and in prison for 31 years

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) called on Wednesday (12.09) during the „Transatlantic Dialogue in Erfurt” with a vigil in front of the Augustinian monastery for support for the Indian civil rights worker Leonard Peltier, who is seriously ill and who has been in prison for 31 years, although he is innocent.

„We should like to draw attention to the fate of this Indian, who would certainly have bee set at liberty long ago if the FBI had in fact presented the courts with all the proofs”, said the GfbV in explaining its campaign. „For this reason we support the appeal of Peltier’s lawyers to publish all the files held back to the present day by the prosecution. For many people he is the Nelson Mandela of the Indian civil rights movement. We appeal to those taking part in the Transatlantic Dialogue to speak out in the name of humanity to the US government for the immediate release of the human rights worker.”

Peltier, who has had to spend almost half his life in prison, will on 12th September 63 years old. Following a shooting incident between members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and FBI agents in the Pine Ridge Reservation of the Oglala Lakota Indians in the US federal state of South Dakota, Peltier, one of the leaders of the AIM. fled to Canada in 1975. Peltier was arrested in 1976, deported to the USA on the basis of a false statement and there he was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment. However the fatal shots were not fired from his gun, as ballistic investigations have proved. A purported eye-witness withdrew her testimony, as this had been given under pressure from the FBI.

Many well-known people like Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando, Nelson Mandela and Robert Redford have taken his part, as well as members of the German parliament and of the European Parliament. Nevertheless the case has not been reopened to the present day. Judge Gerald Heaney, who chaired two appeal hearings, wrote to Clinton, who was then US President, asking him to rescind the sentence on Peltier. However Clinton bowed under the pressure of the FBI and shortly before passing over office to George Bush in January 2001 he crossed the name of the human rights worker off the list of persons to be reprieved.

Peltier is nearly blind on one eye after a heart attack suffered in prison. He has diabetes and he is suspected of suffering from a deadly cancer.

If you want to support Peltier, please join in the eMail appeal of the GfbV to the US House of Representatives and the US Senate or the human rights worker personally (www.gfbv.de).