Amnesty Intl on Peltier Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Amnesty International Webpage press statement link http://www.amnesty-usa.org/news/1999/usa04161999.htm 16 April 1999 USA Amnesty International Calls for the Release of Leonard Peltier MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- Today Amnesty International called for the immediate and unconditional release of Leonard Peltier, an Anishinabe-Lakota Indian and a leading member of the American Indian Movement (AIM). Peltier is serving two consecutive life sentences in Leavenworth Penitentiary for the murders of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents who were killed on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in 1975. Amnesty International had long expressed concerns about the fairness of Peltier's trial in 1977 and subsequent appeals and evidentiary hearings: the FBI knowingly used perjured testimony to obtain Peltier's extradition from Canada to the USA; Peltier's attorneys were denied the right to call relevant defense witnesses; and prosecutors withheld vital evidence. Amnesty International is concerned that Peltier's political activities and beliefs may have influenced the circumstances of his arrest and subsequent trial. Leonard Peltier has now spent twenty-three years in prison. Amnesty International considers Peltier to be a political prisoner whose avenues to legal redress have long been exhausted. The US Government has repeatedly denied requests for a special executive review. Amnesty International recognizes that a retrial is no longer a feasible option and believes that Peltier should be immediately and unconditionally released. Source: Amnesty International, International Secretariat 1 Easton Street, WC1X 8DJ, London, United Kingdom Contact your nearest Amnesty International office for more information c Copyright 1999 Leonard Peltier Defense Committee PO Box 583 Lawrence, KS 66044 785-842-5774 To subscribe, send a blank message to < lpdc-on@mail-list.com > To unsubscribe, send a blank message to < lpdc-off@mail-list.com > To change your email address, send a message to < lpdc-change@mail-list.com> with your old address in the Subject line ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytrc-04.24.99-12:05:46-1810