http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N02633258.htm
Peru says top court upholds Berenson terror verdict 02 Dec 2004 18:04:19 GMT Source: Reuters (Updates with details, court reaction) By Robin Emmott LIMA, Peru, Dec 2 (Reuters) - American Lori Berenson faces 11 more years behind bars in Peru after the Americas' top human rights court upheld her 20-year sentence for collaborating with Marxist rebels, President Alejandro Toledo said on Thursday. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica, Berenson's last avenue of appeal, said her 2001 conviction in Lima was valid despite a challenge from rights groups who argued the ruling was flawed, Toledo told RPP radio. In Costa Rica, court spokesman Arturo Monge refused to confirm the decision. He told Reuters the judges would publish the official ruling on Friday and had not notified any parties. Family members and rights groups say Peru has violated the 35-year-old New Yorker's rights, holding her in inhumane prison conditions in the cold, windswept Andes. She was not given a fair trial and evidence from her military trial was improperly used in her civilian trial, they say. That trial also came before Peru's top court in January 2003 ruled unconstitutional parts of the draconian anti-terror legislation introduced in the 1990s. "Fortunately, the intelligence, balance and experience of the court judges have ratified the sentence," Toledo said. He did not give more details. Berenson says she is innocent. The decision means Berenson, a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology student, will remain in prison until two weeks after her 46th birthday. Berenson, held in Peru since her arrest in 1995, was first tried by a hooded military judge. She was convicted of treason as a leader of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement in 1996, accused of helping to plot an attack on Congress, and jailed for life. That conviction was overthrown in 2000. She was convicted of the lesser charge of terrorist collaboration at a civilian retrial in 2001 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. "GRINGA TERRORIST" Many Peruvians scarred by two decades of guerrilla wars consider Berenson a calculating rebel whose refusal to condemn the Tupac Amaru at her retrial proves her guilt. Officials have said they were unwilling to release her even if the court ruled in her favor and both Toledo and ordinary Peruvians, who deride Berenson as a "gringa terrorist," welcomed the court's decision. "This decision is good for Peru. It would have been shameful if the court had freed Berenson when all Peruvians agree this woman hasn't hidden her terrorist tendencies," said Pablo Hernandez, 34, a Lima accountant. Family members were not immediately available for comment. Berenson's father, Mark, told Reuters this week that Berenson was not a terrorist but rather a victim of anti-American sentiment in Peru. "The local media have twisted her words during her nine-year fight for justice. How can ordinary people have an honest opinion of her?" he said by telephone from New York. Berenson is being held in a prison in the northern mountain city of Cajamarca. Last year, she married a paroled former Tupac Amaru member whom she met at Yanamayo jail in the southern Andes, where her family says the altitude and bitter cold caused her serious health problems. The groom, Anibal Apari, was not allowed to attend his own wedding. They have since been granted conjugal visits. (Additional reporting by Marco Aquino, Monica Vargas, Tania Mellado and Daniel Brenes in San Jose) ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. 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