Jailed U.S. citizen Berenson may be freed in Peru

[Judi Lynn]

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64O4YA20100525?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

Jailed U.S. citizen Berenson may be freed in Peru
LIMA
Tue May 25, 2010 1:25pm EDT

(Reuters) - Lori Berenson, a U.S. citizen serving a 20-year sentence in Peru for aiding leftist guerrillas, could be granted parole on Tuesday after some 15 years in prison and deported, an official at the country's justice ministry said. Berenson, 40, a New Yorker who studied at the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology before moving to Latin America as a human rights activist, would be freed a year after giving birth to a baby boy, Salvador. Berenson became eligible for parole this year after serving most of her sentence.

Her husband, Anibal Apari Sanchez, a former member of the radical Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, or MRTA, is now a lawyer and represented her in the parole hearing. Berenson married Apari in 2003 and inmates in Peru are allowed conjugal visits.

Though the justice ministry said it would quickly file to deport Berenson if the judge grants her parole, Peru's human rights agency, the Defensoria del Pueblo, said there would be no legal basis for forcing her to leave the country.

She was arrested on a bus in 1995 on charges of being a leader of the MRTA, a leftist insurgency that was active in Peru in the 1980s and 1990s. She has denied being part of the MRTA. A "faceless," or anonymous, military court jailed her for life, but under pressure from the United States, a civilian court retried her and sentenced her to 20 years.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64O4YA20100525?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

[naaman fletcher]

1. good news.

and lucky her. We should thank the generosity of the Peruvian government. She is guilty of aiding terrorists who planned to kidnap and kill gov't officials and others. At her first trial, she basically admitted it, only saying that, well, she was fighting for a righteous revolution. She is lucky to be American as if she were Peruvian she would never see the light of day again.

Most Peruvians are unsympathetic to her.

[Delphinus]

6. I don't recall

much of her situation, but am glad to know she's getting out. Thanks for saying a bit more about what took her to prison.

[Flaneur]

2. She has been in jail down there forever. Send her home now, Peru.

[dipsydoodle]

3. She's been paroled

Watch for BBC News - its only on their UK news ticker at present.

[Downtown Hound]

4. Congratulations Lori. Your freedom is LONG overdue.

Of the more disgraceful actions of the Clinton presidency was the way he snuggled up to Fujimori and kissed his ass while he committed countless human rights violations against his own people, and Lori here.

But now Lori is free with a new baby and husband, and Fujifuckface is rotting in jail. Sweetness.

[rabs]

5. Not quite free yet, El Comercio reporting in 72 hours

Lori looking well after spending 15 years in Peruvian prisons.


-- Lori will not be freed from prison tomorrow but in 72 hours which should be around Friday, if the report in El Comercio is correct.

-- The 72 hours, on average, is the time it takes to verify documentation ... that she is not facing additional charges connected to the ones for which she was sentenced in 1995.

--
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Lori Berenson no saldría mañana de prisión, sino recién en 72 horas, según informaron fuentes del Instituto Nacional Penitenciario (INPE) a Radio Programas del Perú (RPP).

Según explicaron, este periodo de tiempo es lo que demora, en promedio, verificar los documentos para que proceda la excarcelación de la condenada a prisión por terrorismo, quien ya cumplió las tres cuartas partes de su pena de 20 años.

Y es que se debe revisar que Berenson no tenga casos pendientes con la justicia por delitos afines al que fue sentenciada en 1995.


Spanish, El Comercio newspaper of Lima

http://elcomercio.pe/noticia/485142/lori-berenson-podria-salir-prision-recien-72-horas-no-manana

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Btw, a visiting Peruvian friend said a couple of months ago that Fujimori was very ill in a Lima prison. His daughter is one of the leading candidates for the presidency next year.