American woman to ask Peru president to pardon terrorism sentence

<br>LIMA, Peru (AP) _ An American woman will seek a pardon from Peru's president after being ordered to serve out her 20-year prison sentence for collaborating with leftist rebels in a failed bid to

Tuesday, February 19th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LIMA, Peru (AP) _ An American woman will seek a pardon from Peru's president after being ordered to serve out her 20-year prison sentence for collaborating with leftist rebels in a failed bid to seize Congress.

The Supreme Court on Monday announced its decision in the case of Lori Berenson. The high court was the New York native's last recourse for appeal in the Peruvian justice system.

Berenson's lawyer and parents said she will pursue the remaining options for being released from prison: a pardon from Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo or a favorable ruling by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Berenson, 32, has already been jailed for six years and must now serve out the sentence that ends in 2015.

She condemned the Supreme Court decision Monday and said she was joining hundreds of jailed guerrillas in a hunger strike to protest prison conditions and Peru's anti-terrorism laws.

Berenson was convicted in June of terrorist collaboration in the thwarted attempt by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement to take over Peru's Congress in 1995.

But she was acquitted of being a member of the rebel group.

That was Berenson's second terrorism conviction. The first came in 1996 when a secret military tribunal of hooded judges sentenced her to life in prison for being a rebel leader.

In that trial, the court ruled that Berenson aided the guerrillas by renting a house for their hide-out and posing as a journalist to enter Congress to gather intelligence.

Berenson denied the charges and said she didn't know her housemates were rebels.

The life sentence was overturned in August 2000 and a new trial ordered after years of pressure from the United States.

Presiding Justice Guillermo Cabala said five Supreme Court judges decided Berenson's appeal last week but held off releasing it until Monday.

Cabala said four judges upheld the 20-year sentence while he supported reducing it to 15 years.

Berenson's parents, Mark and Rhoda Berenson of New York, already have urged Toledo to pardon their daughter. Peruvian officials declined to comment on that possibility while the case was in the courts. There was no official reaction to Monday's announcement.

Rhoda Berenson also said she will ask the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States, to accelerate its review of the case. The issue eventually could reach the OAS court, which has the power to overturn her conviction. Peru is a member state of the court and is obliged to adhere to its rulings.

Berenson, a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology student, considers herself a political prisoner and says authorities unfairly portrayed her concern for social justice as a terrorist agenda.

She condemned the Supreme Court's decision in a statement released by her parents, who have spoken regularly with their daughter by telephone from New York.

``This judicial process was a farce from its beginning to its end. I am innocent of the charges,'' Berenson said in the statement.

Berenson's parents said they will appeal to President Bush to lobby for her release.

``We know that Lori is innocent, and we remain optimistic that she will be released. We call upon President George W. Bush to right this wrong and to secure Lori's release,'' the Berensons said in the statement.

The State Department had no immediate comment.

A pardon of Berenson might be unpopular in Peru, where she is seen as a foreign terrorist in a country that suffered through years of guerrilla violence.

Bush will visit Peru March 23 to discuss trade and combating drug trafficking and terrorism with Toledo. Peruvian Foreign Minister Diego Garcia Sayan last week did not rule out that the two presidents could discuss Berenson's case.

Bush urged Toledo during a June meeting in Washington to consider humanitarian concerns in Berenson's case.

``Lori was a victim of the previous administration,'' Rhoda Berenson told The Associated Press from her New York home.

``She was a political pawn for their personal gains and she's already been in jail for six years under horrendous conditions,'' she said, referring to the previous administration of President Alberto Fujimori.