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in the press campaign against torture. In March 1975 Deputy Secretary General Hans Ehrenstrale talked with the current Chief Inspector of the PIP, H. Coahila de la Peña, and expressed Al's appreciation of these measures against torture. In April 1975, 11 peasants detained for alleged guerrilla activities in the northern Department of Cajamarca were taken up as AI investigation cases. Detained between July 1972 and December 1974, and most of them members of the same extended family, they alleged severe tortures by the Guardia Civil and by the PIP. Hans Ehrenstrale wrote to Señor Coahila de la Pena and to Interior Minister Pedro Richter Prada requesting an investigation into the allegations of torture made by the imprisoned Cajamarca peasants.
AI adoption groups are presently working for 15 Peruvian prisoners.
Trinidad and Tobago
As in previous years, attempts were made to obtain a reprieve for Michael de Freitas-also known as Michael X. When Mr de Freitas' final appeal against his death sentence was dismissed in May 1975, Secretary General Martin Ennals cabled the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference in Jamaica to express Amnesty International's dissapointment at the decision, particularly because of the implications for others awaiting execution in the West Indies. He appealed to all the prime ministers to suport abolition of the death penalty throughout the Commonwealth.
United States of America
At the request of Al's International Council, Amnesty International Secretary General Martin Ennals wrote to President Gerald Ford on 1 November 1974 appealing to him to mark American Thanksgiving Day by declaring a general, unconditional amnesty for all United States war resisters. The contents of this letter were made public in a news release issued to coincide with the annual US holiday on 28 November 1974.
Although the number of imprisoned war resisters is now fewer than in previous years, there are still thousands of young American men living in exile or underground in the United States because, for reasons of conscience, they do not feel able to accept the terms of the clemency program initiated by President Ford.
Much attention has been given throughout the year to the case of Martin Sostre, sentenced to a possible 40 years' imprisonment in 1968 for the alleged sale of narcotics. The only witness of the alleged sale has since recanted his testimony, and AI believes that Mr Sostre was falsely implicated because of his political activities. He was one of the prisoners featured during Prisoner of Conscience Week in October 1974.
On 13 August 1974, an AI observer attended Mr Sostre's appeal against being returned to New York State custody after testifying on behalf of a fellow prisoner in an action against the New York State prison authorities. The federal appellate court ruled against him and he was returned to Clinton prison in New York where he was once again subjected to harrassment and abuse.
On 11 November 1974 Secretary General Martin Ennals cabled the New York State Commissioner of Corrections to express concern about reports that Mr
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