Peru Won't Release Imprisoned N.Y. Woman

LIMA, Peru - Peru will not abide by an international human rights court ruling supporting the release of Lori Berenson (news - web sites), a New York woman imprisoned for collaborating with Marxist guerrillas, the country's foreign minister said, according to news reports Saturday.

The Inter-American Human Rights Court, the Costa Rica-based legal arm of the Organization of American States, is scheduled to deliberate Berenson's case Nov. 24-25 to decide whether she received a fair civilian retrial in 2001. Peru is an OAS member.

"If this error were made, the Peruvian state, with legal justification, would take the position of not liberating any person accused of terrorism," several newspapers quoted Foreign Minister Manuel Rodriguez saying Friday from Santiago, Chile, where he attended the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

"In no case would any disposition be observed that recommends freedom of people accused of terrorism in Peru."

Berenson, 34, was arrested in 1995 for allegedly helping the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. Former President Alberto Fujimori (news - web sites) identified her as a leader in a foiled plan to seize Peru's Congress and exchange hostages for imprisoned MRTA members.

Berenson was convicted by hooded military judges, who denied her a chance to present evidence or cross-examine witnesses. She was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

At her 2001 retrial, which came after intense U.S. pressure, she was convicted of the lesser charge of terrorist collaboration and sentenced to 20 years in prison, including time served.

But Berenson's defense team, led by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, argued that her retrial was based on Fujimori's draconian anti-terrorism laws and failed to meet international standards for due process.

Also, Berenson was improperly tried twice for the same crime, Clark said, and faced hostile judges who relied on coerced testimony and tainted evidence from the earlier military trial. Berenson has denied any wrongdoing.

Peruvian legal experts say the court could order Berenson's release, but they believed it would more likely give Peru leeway to try her for a third time — a result that last month Berenson said she also anticipated.

Her case is a touchy issue for President Alejandro Toledo, who has vowed that "no accused or convicted terrorist" will be released on his watch.

Toledo said Saturday at the APEC (news - web sites) forum in Chile he will await the court's ruling before making any decision on Berenson's fate.

Political analysts say that with his approval rating hovering around 10 percent, Toledo does not want to be labeled by opponents as soft on terrorism — particularly after the embarrassing collapse last week of a civilian retrial against Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman and his top rebel commanders.

LB was shacked up with a member of a Shining Path (marxist revolutionaries) adjunct group. She rented and occupied a house that he and his cell used as a HQ where they plotted an attack on a government building and stored a cache of weapons and explosives.

At her trial (which was a mockery of any standards...hooded judges...faceless accusers) she claimed to be an innocent victim of love. She sank herself when the Fujimoru government gave her a chance to speak to the country via TV. Her harsh rant drove the last nail in her coffin.

She belongs in prison for actively assisting in the attempted overthrow of a sovreign country. Her trial though was a kangaroo court joke.

Just a few snipits from a story on her in 2001

**snip**
Lori Berenson was a brilliant student who went to college at MIT. But as she became more politically active, she left school for El Salvador in 1992, where a brutal civil war was winding down.

During the war in El Salvador, there were two sides. The side of the government and the side of the FMLN, a Marxist guerrilla group. "I sided with the search for justice," Berenson said.

For Berenson that meant joining the guerrilla movement and working for one of its top leaders. In 1994, she moved onto another troubled country, Peru.

"There is a lot of poverty. There's a lot of social injustice," she said.

Though the government there has said she was a frustrated radical looking for a revolution, she claimed that's not true.
**snip**

**snip**
When she arrived in Peru, Berenson chose to live in a house in La Molina. Five years ago the government said this was the headquarters of the MRTA.

On Nov. 30, 1995, police raided the La Molina house. There was a fierce firefight with MRTA members inside. When it was over, authorities said they discovered a huge cache of weapons. Berenson claimed she knew nothing about any terrorist activities at the house.

Some might find it hard to believe that she was unaware of these weapons. "If I live in the house 24 hours a day and spent my life spying on other people in the house, sure," she said. "I really never saw anything unusual. I went to my room. And that's the only thing I did."

Mario Cavagnario, chief investigator in the Berenson case, claimed she was part of the organization. "All the people around her in Peru belong to the MRTA In Spanish we say: Tell me who you run with and I'll tell you who you are."

Berenson accompanied an alleged gun runner for the MRTA Pacifico Castrellon when he rented the La Molina house. "We were friends," she said.

According to Peruvian press reports they were lovers. But, Castrellon, now in prison, has turned on Berenson and says she is an MRTA member.
**snip**

**snip**
But then came a moment that even Berenson's supporters say undermined her claims of innocence. While awaiting her verdict, Berenson was paraded before the press. And she exploded with rage.

"In the MRTA," she shouted, "there are no criminal terrorists. It is a revolutionary movement."
**snip**

**snip**
But the government says an event, one year after Lori Berenson's imprisonment, says the most about the true nature of her association with the terrorists. The MRTA took over the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima. During the crisis, the release of Lori Berenson was near the top of the rebel leader's demands.

Why would he ask for Lori Berenson to be released if she weren't a follower, a member of the MRTA or at least a comrade?

"I actually don't know," she said. "I'm not a follower. I'm not a comrade. I'm not anything."

But in the last 24 hours, 48 Hours has obtained new information that appears to contradict Lori Berenson's assertions. A high-ranking American contacted 48 Hours with information he says links her directly to the terrorists. The source says the terrorist leader admitted using Berenson for "intelligence collection."
**snip**

She's a terrorist, plain and simple. Another spoiled brat of 1960s hippies who thinks that just because she's an American, she can do whatever she wants...including helping known killers and terrorists. She needs to rot in this Peru jail cell and she then needs to rot in hell.

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