Citizens’ enquiries on the case of Leonard Peltier

Citizens often send messages to the President of the European Parliament (or to the institution’s public portal) expressing their views on current issues and/or requesting action from the Parliament. The Citizens’ Enquiries Unit (Ask EP) within the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) looks into these issues and replies to the messages; sometimes many identical messages are received as part of a wider public campaign.

The President of the European Parliament has recently received a large number of messages calling for the liberation of Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist who was convicted to two consecutive life sentences for the murders of two FBI agents in 1977 and has been imprisoned ever since. Citizens first began to write in June 2021 to ask the European Parliament and its President to intervene in favour of the release of Leonard Peltier.

In an initial reply, the Citizens’ Enquiries Unit highlighted that the President of the European Parliament was not in a position to resolve such a situation. The President subsequently decided to support the case of Leonard Peltier, and the reply was thus further developed.

Please find below the main points of  our updated reply sent to citizens who have taken the time to write to the President of the European Parliament on this matter (in English and Italian).

Main points made in the reply in English

You may be pleased to learn that the President of the European Parliament declared on 23 August 2021 that he would send a letter to the US authorities asking for clemency for Leonard Peltier. The video of his speech is available on his Twitter account. President Sassoli said: “Human rights must be defended always, everywhere. I hope the authorities will take up my invitation”.

Main points made in the reply in Italian

Le potrà far piacere sapere che il Presidente Sassoli ha dichiarato il 23 agosto 2021 che invierà una lettera alle autorità statunitensi per chiedere un atto di clemenza nei confronti di Leonard Peltier. Il video del suo discorso è disponibile sul suo conto Twitter. Il Presidente ha affermato quanto segue: “Sono convinto che la difesa dei diritti umani sia sempre valida – sempre e ovunque. Ci auguriamo che le autorità degli Stati Uniti accolgano questo invito”.