 The longest-serving political prisoner in the United States has tested positive for COVID-19. Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, who is imprisoned at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Florida, is 77 years old and has served more than 46 years in jail for a crime that he insists he did not commit. Peltier suffers from several health conditions which has put him in serious danger with the COVID-19 diagnosis. Shortly before contracting COVID-19, he published a statement in which he said, left alone and without attention is like a torture chamber for the sick and the old. Who is Leonard Peltier? Leonard Peltier is an Indigenous activist and organizer of the American Indian Movement in the 1970s. The movement was fighting against issues of systemic discrimination faced by the Native American population in the United States. In 1973, AIM activists had organized an occupation of wounded knee in the Pine-Rich Indian Reservation in South Dakota to protest corruption and discriminatory practices from the federal government. The occupation lasted 71 days and was followed by a three-year retaliatory reign of terror against AIM activists and tribal members who supported the protest action. These violent attacks and murders, 60 according to the Free Leonard campaign, were carried out by FBI-sponsored vigilantes, the guardians of the Oglala Nation or Goons. How did Peltier end up in jail? In 1975, in the midst of the reign of terror, two FBI agents in unmarked cars stormed a ranch on the Pine-Rich Indian Reservation, allegedly looking for a suspect in a robbery. Tensions escalated and a shootout ensued, with allegedly 150 agents in Goons surrounding the ranch where Peltier and other AIM members were staying. Two FBI agents were killed as well as one Native American man. In 1977, Peltier was given two consecutive life sentences for allegedly killing two FBI agents during the shootout. He insists to this day that he did not commit the crime and that his conviction is politically motivated. FBI documents released after the sentencing revealed the bureau's long-term plan for suppressing AIM. An internal FBI memo also revealed a push to concentrate all resources on convicting Peltier after his co-defendants had been acquitted. His trial was also rife with misconduct and violations of due process. His conviction was based on unreliable testimonies, several of which were later recanted, citing FBI coercion. During the trial, one of the jurors even admitted bias against Peltier's Native American ethnicity. In July last year, James Reynolds, a former prosecutor who helped put him behind bars, sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging his release. He stated, With time and the benefit of hindsight, I have realized that the prosecution and continued incarceration of Mr. Peltier was and is unjust. We were not able to prove that Mr. Peltier personally committed any offence on the Pine Bridge Reservation. How have movements reacted to his imprisonment? Over the years of Peltier's imprisonment, supporters have built a mass movement around his case. International leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Pope Francis, Mother Teresa and Coretta Scott King have all at various points urged his release. Following his COVID-19 diagnosis, the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee has started a petition to Joe Biden for his transfer to hospital and for clemency. On Friday, I received a call at 7.30 a.m. from Leonard in distress. He was sick. He'd been sick all night long. He was coughing. He could hardly breathe. And so after the phone call, I contacted his unit manager, got them down there by 8 a.m. and they ordered a COVID test for him. COVID test was not given to him until later on public, at least 5 p.m. It wasn't until 7 p.m. that night after Leonard had spent over 10 hours in the general public that they got on to the medical unit. He is now in isolation for the next 14 days in case he gets worse, then he'll be moved to a hospital. We're not giving any updates, even though we all have never released his. We are not giving anything from them. And what we have found out when asked to Leonard how he thought he could have contracted this, he told me, he says, there's people walking around in the halls of Peltte Mass Five. They're not enforcing the use of masks. They're not enforcing people who have suspected COVID to be isolated immediately. He should have been isolated. Right now we show that 20 guards in the Bureau of Prisons, USP1 up in Coleman have COVID. They're bringing it in and they're giving it to the inmates. They're accountable for this. He got COVID because of them and their negligence. And if Leonard Peltteer dies in prison, God help us. Because America's watching. Joe Biden, it's up to you to release this man. It's up to everybody to reach out to their congressmen, reach out to the president, call the comment line. We have a man who's in prison, been in prison for 46 years, 46 years for a private improvement. He did not commit. We have proof. We have the original US prosecuting attorneys all the same. We're sorry. We're sorry. But we screwed up. And we think that Leonard Peltteer should be released. Joe Biden, we need you to hear us right now. Hi, COVID-19 transmission rates have plagued US prisons since the beginning of the pandemic. And it has been a rallying point for protest action by insulated people across the country. For the dozens of political prisoners in US prisons, the situation has become a constant threat to the survival, as many suffer from life-threatening health conditions developed during their decades-long sentences.