Lima, Peru – Jewish Woman Imprisoned For 15 Years Goes Free

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    Lori Berenson, left, from New York, is escorted by police officers as she arrives for an audience at a courthouse in Lima, Tuesday, May 25, 2010. A Peruvian judge granted house arrest to Berenson after 15 years in prison for aiding leftist rebels. (AP Photo/Karel Navarro)Lima, Peru – A judge granted parole Tuesday to Lori Berenson, the 40-year-old New York activist who has spent 15 years in Peruvian prisons on a conviction of aiding leftist rebels.

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    Judge Jessica Leon granted a request by Berenson, who gave birth a year ago, for conditional release at a hearing at the Lima prison where the American has been held since January 2009.

    She said, however, that Berenson cannot leave Peru until her sentence for terrorist collaboration ends in November 2015.

    Berenson nodded assent but did not speak when asked by the judge if she accepted the decision. Bespectacled and wearing earrings, with her braided brown hair hanging over an embroidered sweater, Berenson looked serene during the one-hour hearing.

    “I’m happy with the sentence because justice was done,” said her lawyer, Anibal Apari, who is also father of Berenson’s child, Salvador.

    Apari said Berenson, whom he met in prison and married in 2003, would be freed within 24 hours. Their child has been living with his mother in prison since his birth last May.

    Apari is a former member of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, or MRTA, the now defunct leftist band of which Berenson was convicted of helping.

    Berenson’s father Mark, a former Baruch College statistics professor, was overjoyed at the news. “I let out a shout that I think my daughter heard in Peru.”

    “I’m feeling great, I had three glasses of wine, this is an incredible, incredible feeling,” he told The Associated Press in New York. “It solely will be topped only when I see my daughter and grandson in freedom.”

    The judge’s decision, read by a clerk, said Berenson had “completed re-education, rehabilitation and re-socialization” and demonstrated “positive behavior.”

    “I’m very glad that the judge saw all the evidence and agreed that Lori earned and deserved the parole,” Mark Berenson added in a telephone interview. “It shows that justice and democracy in Peru can work.”

    Berenson had for many years denied any wrongdoing, maintaining she was a political prisoner and not a terrorist.

    But her defense team said in papers submitted to the judge that she “recognized she committed errors in involving herself in activites of the MRTA.” She said in her parole request that she planned to work as a translator if released.

    In Washington, Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said he had no comment when asked if Berenson faces any charges in the United States once released.

    In an e-mail sent to supporters on Tuesday, Berenson’s parents said their daughter would be raising Salvador as a single mother.

    “Anibal and Lori are legally separated but remain friends and both share concerns for Salvador’s proper upbringing,” they wrote.

    They said their grandson “will certainly enjoy the opportunity to run around outside the confines of the prison. He is learning both English and Spanish but babbles continuously in ‘unknown tongue.'”

    Photos of the Berensons with their grandson are posted along with the message on the couple’s website.

    Their daughter had dropped out of the Massachussets Institute of Technology in 1989 to pursue a passion for social justice. After a time in Central America — she worked as private secretary to El Salvador’s top rebel commander during peace negotiations there — she traveled to Peru in 1994.

    Berenson was arrested in 1995 and initially accused of being a leader of the MRTA, which bombed banks and kidnapped and killed civilians but was nowhere near as violent as the better-known Shining Path insurgency.

    It is blamed for, at most, 200 killings.

    Police claimed she helped coordinate Tupac Amaru activities and obtained weapons for the group. She was convicted of treason by a military court in 1996.

    But after an intense campaign by her parents — both of whom took early retirement to dedicate themselves full-time to their daughter — and other supporters, she was retried in a civilian court in 2000. It convicted Berenson of the lesser crime and reduced her sentence to 20 years.

    The U.S. State Department had pushed hard for the civilian trial, saying Berenson was denied due process by the military tribunal. Her case soured relations between the administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton and that of former Peruvian strongman Alberto Fujimori.

    Fujimori stepped down in disgrace in 2000 before Berenson’s retrial, and is now in state custody on convictions for crimes including murder, kidnapping and corruption.

    Berenson’s spent much of her captivity — especially the years before her retrial — in harsh mountain prisons.

    She was transferred to Lima in January 2009 from a prison in the northern province of Cajamarca after being diagnosed with a herniated disc that was aggravated by her pregnancy.


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    61 Comments
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    ShatzMatz
    ShatzMatz
    13 years ago

    Another lefty do-gooder. I am mystified why we yidden are so prone to this anarchistic radicalism. The article neglects to mention that she was caught drawing maps of secure facilities in order to assist terror attacks.
    Fulimori was a corrupt maglomaniac, but he did succeed in wiping out two terrorist groups from Peru.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    She is from the Dina de Malchuta Dina crowd!!!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    She is a typical example of a jew who we don’t want to be associated with. She is a jew only technically but she has no connection to us or to HKB”H.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Because Jews have the “change the world” in their DNA. Look at Avraham Avinu and how he challenged the world, becoming a “radical” in his generation, for lack of a better word. A Jew who doesn’t use the Torah as his/her guidance will naturally find another “ism” to invent or root for.

    awsome
    awsome
    13 years ago

    her kid was with her in prison, what kind of a thing is that?

    Loshon Hora
    Loshon Hora
    13 years ago

    Was the father lawyer Jewish too?
    The name doesn’t sound like it.

    reply#5
    reply#5
    13 years ago

    Cool it. #3 was just saying that she isn’t consciously connecting herself to HKBH, not that she could remove herself from the Jewish nation. Take a pill or something.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    So cop-killer Grossman is a tzaddik, but this woman is no good? Somebody plaese explain me this.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Another lefty who hasa wasted her life and to what end.? The Yidden never learn. These kids are indoctrinated into cults, go hiking in war zones, then scream when they are held hostage. Doesn’t anyone have any common sense anymore?
    My oldest daughter wanted to go on a bare boat cruise in the Carib., after graduation. My wife said ok, I put my foot down, and said no. Goa anywhere else, and I’ll pay, but not on a bare boat cruise not knowuing anyone on board. People called me ans said you don’t want your daughter to enjoy life. I said yes. She’s not going and hung up. Did I do the right thing or not? I think I did.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    just wait. when she gets out of peru she will head to israel and protest on behalf of the arabs.
    i do not know why the jewish community came to her defense. she is obviously a leftest who is pro all the movements that are against us. for example she would for sure be working against rubashkin in favor of the poor central american workers.
    can someone explain ?

    JJ
    JJ
    13 years ago

    If her group caused the killing of police officers and civilians , then I support the peruvian authorities for putting her in prison , regardless of her religious affiliation.

    I am curious how she had a baby while in prison? I guess the prisons in peru are not too secure.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Torquemada and Khomeini, among many others, were also guided by their feelings and firmly believed they were doing G-d’s will.
    It doesn’t matter why you do it. It’s what you do that counts.
    P’ruta letzedokoh shyichye b’ni – tzaddik gommur.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    This woman’s mother was a fellow student at NYU and received her Ph.D.
    the parents are 2 outstanding jewish people who unfortunately are not imbued with Torah .They gave their daughter an excellent secular education but vey little Jewish education. Even statistically speaking, this is a setup for disaster, as the sensitivity is alive but the connection is moribund.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Let’s hope the government is so kind to Rubashkin and let him be under house arrest.

    Shmuel
    Shmuel
    13 years ago

    This woman was coordinating and in a number of cases executing terrorist acts that caused dozens if not hundreds of people, military and civilians, to die horrible deaths. As an aside, she ‘married’ a great number of men, both before her imprisonment, and in prison – the father of her child is only one of many, many men, almost all terrorists, who can call he ‘my ex’.

    A good friend of mine, who was actually driving around with ‘free that woman’ bumper sticker until I requested that he takes it off or never parks his car near the shul, told me that he knows her parents well, and that she is exactly the kind of ‘product’ you would expect from this the kind of upbringing she received.

    I was thoroughly disappointed and thought it to be great injustice when after a good deal of strong arming from our government her sentence was reduced to 20 years. And now she won’t even serve that. Death penalty would be the only fitting punishment for her. Understanding that Peruvian government didn’t want such sentence for political reasons, you do have to placate your strongest ally, she at least should have never seen outside of the prison for the rest of her wretched life.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    What a tragedy that this women who grew up in NYC to educated liberal parents would find it her life’s mission to support violent communist rebels in South America !!! Why did this happen? I will tell you: Liberalism is a mental disorder. We should all pray that the thousands of Jewish children of liberal NYers learn that socialism is destructive and that they should find their way back to HaShem’s Torah and Mitzvos and work toward helping their people here in the USA who need caring people to run the Chesed Organizations to feed the elderly, educate the learning disabled and physically impaired. Amen !!! There is so much that these young Yidden could do to help their own people right here in NY.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    to 20 shure you did the right thing if this lady”s father did the same he dosent have to scream he should be heard till peru