Leonard Peltier (Indigenous Issues)

Oral Statement by the Society for Threatened Peoples
Society for Threatened Peoples would to bring the case of Leonard Peltier to your attention, a world recognized Human Rights and Indigenous Rights Defender

Mr. Peltier, a Lakota-Anishinabe and life long advocate of traditional, cultural, civil, and human rights for Native Peoples, is inmate at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in the United States for a crime he obviously did not commit. Therefore, he has become a world-known symbol of injustice particularly toward Indigenous Peoples. His personal testimony of the case is recorded on the Commission’s document E/CN.4/1997/NGO/80.

We feel, Leonard Peltier has been unjustly held in U.S. federal prisons, now for twenty-five years. The facts we know - his illegal extradition, unfair trial, failing appeals, parole hearings, and Executive Clemency processes - have all shown, according to our understanding, that Mr. Peltier is not, and has never been in prison to pay restitution for a crime. Rather, he has been held in prison for political reasons which means being a member of the indigenous peoples in the USA resisting to surrender. All domestic remedies to bring justice to Mr. Peltier have been obstructed by the U.S. Prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Documents released pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit proved that the U.S. Prosecutors and the FBI, in collusion with the Canadian prosecutor, prepared and submitted falsified affidavits to Canadian officials to obtain the extradition. Several court judges have recognized and condemned the manner in which the extradition was obtained, yet Mr. Peltier’s extradition was never reversed.

We note that for the last 15 years, the US government has consistently conceded that they cannot prove who is guilty of the crime Mr. Peltier was originally convicted of (see Peltier v. Henman, 997 F.2 at 469). Moreover, the appellate court has found that Mr. Peltier might have been acquitted had the FBI not improperly withheld evidence. Yet, a new trial was never granted and the FBI and prosecutors have continuously obstructed all other avenues for redress and release. Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, former US Ambassador at the United Nations Bill Richardson, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Chairman of the Select Committee on Indian Affairs), Congressman John Conyers (US House of Judiciary Committee), and the European Parliament have called for an investigation into the judicial improprieties involved in Mr. Peltier’s conviction.

In 1993, Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who serves as Mr. Peltier’s attorney, filed a petition for executive clemency, requesting that President Clinton commute Mr. Peltier’s sentence to time served. An intensive campaign supported by Human Rights advocates from around the world was waged, escalating into a national issue during the last year of Mr. Clinton’s presidency. Just months before the president would leave office, the White House announced that Mr. Peltier’s request was being seriously considered. In response, the FBI launched an intensified disinformation campaign both in the media and among key officials. On December 15, 2000, over 500 FBI Agents marched in front of the White House to pressure the U.S. President to deny clemency. On January 20, 2001, Mr. Peltier’s name was not included on Mr. Clinton’s list of clemencies. No explanation was given.

In light of these circumstances, Society for Threatened Peoples calls upon the Commission to appoint the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to carry out a visit to the United States to examine the case of Leonard Peltier, a recognized Indigenous Human Rights Defender and to make a report to the next Commission session.

Additionally, we ask the Commission to recommend that the US Government release the 6000 documents pertaining to the Peltier case withheld by the FBI. We also encourage the Commission to join several U.S. officials and the European Parliament in calling for an investigation into the judicial improprieties involved in the gaining of Mr. Peltier’s conviction.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman