Lori Berenson Teargassed, Beaten, Molested
Phone The White House Hotline! Info Below!
Help Free Lori (Updated February, 2004)

Lori Berenson still needs your help!

Lori Berenson is a New Yorker who was unjustly imprisoned for treason in Peru at age 26 by the corrupt President Fujimori (who has since fled the country) and was found not guilty as charged by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in April 2002.

The Commission ordered her freed and compensated for the wrongs done her, but Peru refused to comply. Lori in now taking her case before the Inter-American Court and it will tentatively be heard in May.

It is important to remind the U.S. government of their duty to gain Lori's freedom. The family are asking people to phone the White House Hot Line (202-456-1111 - press 0 ) on Wednesdays and Thursdays and remind the President that this woman has been wrongfully imprisoned for 8 years and that he should use the authority he has under U.S. Code 22 Section 1732 to obtain her freedom.

On December 21, 2001 Lori Berenson and the other women in her area of the Chorillos Prison in Lima, Peru, were awakened at 3:15AM and teargassed. The other women were beaten. Berenson also reports that after being thrown to the floor she was sexually molested and the other women were threatened with rape. Then she was removed (without her eyeglasses, medicines and shoes) to a remote mountain prison in northern Peru, at Cajamarca, for “disciplinary reasons.” The US embassy was not properly advised of this most recent abuse of the human-rights activist/journalist and the other women. THIS TREATMENT HAS BEEN CHARACTERIZED AS “ACCORDING TO REGULATIONS” BY THE PERUVIAN JUSTICE MINISTRY.

History

As of November 30, 2001, Lori Berenson is in the seventh year of her imprisonment. She turned thirty-two on November 13. She has steadfastly maintained her innocence of the charges of “terrorist/collaborator” for which she was sentenced to twenty years in June after her double-jeopardy retrial, and has stated her rejection of terrorism. Her sentence is being appealed on the basis of lack of evidence and violations of due process by the notoriously biased anti-terrorism court.

Under the former de facto dictator, Fujimori (now in self-chosen exile in Japan) and his chief spy, Vladimiro Montesinos (currently in prison in Peru for various crimes against the government and people of Peru), repressive, anti-terrorist legislation had been enacted which resulted in disappearances, torture, murder and/or imprisonment of many people, including Berenson. Clearly, there was wide opposition to that government, without democratic means of change at the time. Further, it is known that Montesinos wields political, judicial and media power from jail (in addition to drug-dealing!!).

When arrested in 1995, Lori was working on articles for two small magazines, one published at Columbia University. Her computer and all her data were confiscated by the police and have never been released to her family or lawyer. The articles were documenting much of what she saw and heard about human rights violations under the Fujimori-Montesinos (often referred to as “Fujisinos”) regime, and the effects of their policies on poverty-stricken women and families. Several of the interviews she conducted were with Peruvian senators.

The U.S. president, under Act of Congress 22 U.S.C. Section 1732, has a duty to take all necessary steps, short of going to war, to secure the release from foreign custody of any American citizen who has apparently been wrongfully incarcerated. Recently NPR reported that President Toledo of Peru publicly asked for forgiveness from all the wrongfully incarcerated people in Peru. NO U.S. PRESIDENT HAS IMPLEMENTED SECTION 1732 FOR LORI BERENSON.

In June 2001, the National Organization for Women passed a Resolution of Support for Lori Berenson, which obliges NOW to issue a public statement on her behalf and to contact the White House with a statement calling for more intense pressure on the new Peruvian government to effect her release. To date, NOW has not acted.

What you can do

Therefore, NOW members are urged to do the following:

Update

A decision on her appeal may have been announced by the time this is printed. Her lawyer had 5 MINUTES to review his presentations made over the 4 HOURS of his part of her retrial, to rebut testimony given FOR 3 MONTHS. THIS IS NOT THE DUE PROCESS THAT WE HAVE BEEN TOLD THE RETRIAL WOULD PROVIDE, nor, indeed, was the double-jeopardy retrial, at any time.

(From February 22, 2002)

Lori Berenson, a U.S. citizen wrongfully imprisoned in Peru since 1995, is reportedly now on a hunger strike.

A secret military tribunal convicted Ms. Berenson of treason and sentenced her to life in prison in Jan. 1996, in violation of international law. In Aug. 2000, the life sentence was nullified and exchanged for a 20-year sentence after a civilian retrial, despite the fact that double jeopardy laws are against Peruvian, U.S. and international laws. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of Peru upheld the 20-year sentence.

During Berenson's six-year incarceration she has been held in maximum security isolation in freezing high-altitude Andean prisons, which has caused significant damage to her health. While being transferred to another prison in December 2001, Berenson was allegedly beaten, tear-gassed and fondled by police.

The United Nations High Commission on Human Rights and Amnesty International, among other human rights organizations, have deplored the injustice of Peru's secret military trials against civilians accused of treason and condemned the Peruvian government for Berenson's wrongful imprisonment. More than 200 U.S. Senators and Representatives have made strong statements on Lori Berenson's behalf; President Bush urged Peru's then President-elect Alejandro Toledo that humanitarian factors be taken into consideration last June.

The U.S. President is obligated under Title 22 U.S. Code Section 1732 to take all necessary steps to secure the release of American citizens wrongfully imprisoned abroad.

Failing to act on Berenson's behalf sends the message that the U.S. will not act when its citizens are wrongfully imprisoned in other countries.

Urge President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell to use their power to secure Berenson's release: