Human rights action for Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier

This Friday, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) will be holding a vigil outside the US Embassy in Berlin to call on President Barack Obama to pardon the Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier, who has been innocently imprisoned for the last 40 years. The human rights organization has asked for an appointment at the embassy to present the appeal, for which the STP collected more than 1,600 signatures during the last few months.

Peltier was arrested in Canada on February 6, 1976, when he tried to ask for political asylum. Back then, the now 71-year-old was one of the leaders of the American Indian Movement. The FBI was looking for him, as he was accused of killing two FBI agents in a shootout on the premises of Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota (USA) on June 26, 1975. Peltier always claimed to be innocent. He was afraid he would not get a fair trial in the United States, so he tried to escape to Canada. Based on a false statement, he was extradited to the US and sentenced to twice life imprisonment for murder. All attempts to challenge the verdict and to initiate new proceedings have failed.

The only chance left for the old and sick Native American rights activist to live the rest of his life in life in freedom is to be pardoned by President Barack Obama. Peltier is suffering from diabetes and a heart disease. Also, he is almost blind in one eye.

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, Desmond Tutu 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.

Contact: Yvonne Bangert, Indigenous Peoples Department: +49 (0)551 – 499 06 14

During the vigil: +49 (0)151 – 5616 04 02

Header Photo: Steve Rhodes via Flickr