-Caveat Lector- Jailed American doubts she'll get fair trial The Associated Press 11/4/00 12:43 AM WASHINGTON (AP) -- The American woman held for five years in a Peru prison for treason insisted in an interview with The Washington Post that she is innocent. Berenson, 30, of New York City, was convicted in 1996 and sentenced to life in prison on charges of helping the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement plan an attack on Peru's congress. Officials have granted her a new trial by a civil court and moved her to a new prison in Lima. But she does not have high hopes. "I cannot imagine that I can get a fair trial here," she told the Post in the interview published Saturday. "I am innocent of all the charges against me, earlier and current." She wore thick eyeglasses because her vision has eroded after years in tiny, dark cells. She wrung her hands constantly, perhaps trying to hide the swollen red blotches she acquired through exposure during two years in Yanamayo, a freezing Andean prison with thin air and no heating. But she showed no signs that prison had eroded her confidence. Seated between two prison guards in a high-backed chair in a warden's office, she was positioned under a slogan of the national police, "God, Fatherland, Law." When a guard quietly suggested to a journalist that Berenson be photographed with the logo, she quickly retorted, "No!" and frowned at them with disdain, the Post said. Berenson was arrested on a Lima bus on Nov. 30, 1995. That evening, a 10-hour shootout ensued between police and MRTA rebels at the house in which Berenson and a group of rebels had lived in the fashionable Lima suburb of La Molina. Police discovered a sketch of the layout of the Peruvian congress which they claim was in Berenson's handwriting. Berenson, who was accredited as a free-lance journalist in Peru, has insisted that she did not know that her housemates were rebels engaged in trying to overthrow the Peruvian government. She was tried in an anti-terrorism court presided over by hooded military judges who don't allow defendants to examine or rebut the evidence against them. What most Peruvians remember was Berenson's wild speech to the press before her life sentence. She condemned injustice in Peru and said, "In the Tupac Amaru Movement, there are no delinquent terrorists. It is a revolutionary movement." Many thought that was an admission of guilt. "That is freedom of speech," she told the Post. "There is nothing illegal about that. In fact, I think I should have said more. Had I known I would have had more time, I would have said more." Copyright 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. INSIDE NewsFlash <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
