USA: Obama should fulfil an indigenous civil rights activist his last heartfelt wish

US President Barack Obama should use his last days in office to fulfil the heartfelt of the imprisoned Indian civil rights activist Leonard Peltier and pardon the 72-year-old, who is seriously ill. This appeal was presented by the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) on Tuesday – with more than 2,000 signatures. “All our hopes are resting on you, Mr. President: Please pardon Mr. Peltier!", says the letter of the human rights organization.

“Nobody would seriously expect Obama’s successor, Donald Trump, to make such a move,” said Yvonne Bangert, the STP’s expert on questions concerning indigenous peoples. Leonard Peltier has been in custody for more than 40 years because of a crime that he could hardly have committed. He was arrested in Canada on February 6, 1976, where he tried to seek political asylum. Back then, the now 72-year-old bad been involved in the civil rights movement “American Indian Movement” (AIM) and had been wanted by the FBI. He was held responsible for the fact that two FBI agents had been killed on a shooting at the Pine Ridge Reserve in the US state of South Dakota on June 26, 1975. Peltier always claimed to be innocent. For fear of not getting a fair trial in the US, he had tried to flee to Canada. However, due to a false statement, he was handed over to the US where he was sentenced to twice life for accessory to murder. All attempts to appeal this judgement and to initiate new proceedings had failed.

Today, both the prosecutor James H. Reynolds and the judge Gerald W. Heany – who had refused to reopen the case as a judge of appeal in the 1980s – are in favor of reopening the proceedings. Peltier is suffering from diabetes and heart problems, and he is almost blind in one eye. Recently, there were reports about an imminent cancer operation.

Over the years, many prominent voices have taken sides with Leonard Peltier, including the late Simon Wiesenthal, director of the Documentation Centre of the Association of Jewish Victims of the Nazi regime; the Nobel Peace Prize winners Rigoberta Menchu and Nelson Mandela, artists such as Robert Redford and Harry Belafonte and many members of the US-Congresses as well as members of parliament in Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, members of the European Parliament and members of the German Bundestag. In addition to the STP, Amnesty International advocates for the civil rights activist too.

Header Photo: STP