SAN FRANCISCO — The parents of American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh pleaded Wednesday with President George W. Bush to set their son free before Bush leaves office next month.
Lindh was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2002 to serving in the Taliban army, which violated U.S. economic sanctions against Afghanistan at that time.
At a news conference in San Francisco, Lindh’s mother, Marilyn Walker, asked the president to show mercy during the Christmas season by commuting her son’s sentence.
“John made a mistake in joining the Taliban,” she said.
Lindh converted to Islam when he was 16 and traveled to Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan in furtherance of his religious studies, his lawyer Jim Brosnahan said at the news conference.
Lindh was captured by Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan on Nov. 24, 2001, and was shot and wounded during a prison uprising. He was later turned over to U.S. authorities and is serving his sentence in Terre Haute, Ind.
Lindh, 28, asked for a commutation in 2004, and lawyers have filed petitions each year since.
The U.S. Department of Justice has never acted on the previous petitions.
