U.S. Scorns Peltier Appeal for Soviet Political Asylum

The State Department today called American Indian activist Leonard Peltier a “convicted criminal” and criticized the Soviet Union, which is considering his request for political asylum on human rights grounds.

Peltier, who is serving two life sentences at the U.S. penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kan., was convicted of killing two FBI agents during a shoot-out on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975. He has maintained that the government framed him and repeated that allegation in a letter to Soviet authorities.

“No man nor woman who truly loves their homeland wants to leave; however, because there is no justice for myself and because there is no justice for my people, I am making this request for political asylum in your great nation,” Peltier wrote to Soviet authorities from the penitentiary on July 9.

Peltier and his supporters on the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, which released the letter at a news conference today, have said his case is a human rights issue.

Radio Moscow reported Wednesday that Peltier’s request for asylum had been received and was being considered by appropriate authorities.

“The State Department does not consider the Peltier case a human rights issue,” department spokesman Rudy Boone said. “The Soviets have construed it as such for their own devices and uses.

“It was noted that Peltier is a convicted criminal and in that sense he is not a human rights victim. There were witnesses and there was a trial and there was due process. There is nothing arbitrary about his sentence.”

A spokesman for the the defense committee said it has received no indication that U.S. authorities would free Peltier to go to the Soviet Union if asylum were granted.