Saturday, June 27, 1998

Peru's travesty of justice

Peru's new prime minister, Javier Valle Riestra, has called for a pardon for a young American woman serving a life sentence in a remote prison 13,000 feet up in the Andes.

Her 1996 trial, says Valle Riestra, was "flawed."

"Flawed" is hardly the word for that travesty of a legal proceeding. Lori Berenson, now 28, was convicted in secret, by a hooded military judge, without the right to a lawyer or witnesses in her defense. Moreover, she was convicted of treason, which legally she could not commit because she is a U.S., not a Peruvian, citizen.

Peru's military says Berenson, an MIT student, was aiding the hated Tupac Amaru guerrillas. Who knows the truth of the matter? Only a fair trial would tell, and she certainly didn't get that.

A special commission has begun releasing prisoners sentenced by the military courts because the convictions don't stand up under scrutiny. Perhaps because the government of President Alberto Fujimori doesn't want to appear to truckle to Yankee pressure, Berenson's case is not one of those under review.

Valle Riestra, an opposition leader, has boldly given Fujimori the necessary political cover. Pardon her and send her home.