Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- John Walker Lindh, the so-called American Taliban captured in Afghanistan in 2001, asked U.S. President George W. Bush to commute the 20-year sentence he is serving for helping the Taliban.

The Justice Department received a request for commutation of Lindh’s sentence, spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said today. The government hasn’t acted upon Lindh’s prior requests for commutation since he filed his first one in 2004.

Lindh, 27, was offered the 20-year term in return for his guilty plea in July 2002 to charges of providing services to the Taliban and carrying illegal explosives. He has denounced the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist group and has cooperated with the government in terrorism investigations.

“John has been incarcerated now for seven years,” his parents said in a statement today. “We hope that President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush will recognize that justice will be served by commuting John’s prison sentence, and allowing him to come home to his family.”

Bush has received 8,071 petitions to commute a sentence during his term and granted eight, according to the Web site of the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney. The president has received 2,228 requests for presidential pardons and granted 171, according to the site.

The case is U.S. v. John Phillip Walker Lindh, 02-37, U.S. District, Eastern District of Virginia.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 17, 2008 16:35 EST