19 February 2002

State Department Spokesman Comments on Lori Berenson Case

Washington -- The U.S. citizen who was convicted and sentenced to a 20-year jail sentence by Peru for collaboration with a leftist terrorist organization appears to have received "due process" in her appeal of the sentence, says State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

Asked February 19 at his regular noon briefing to comment on the Peruvian Supreme Court's upholding the conviction and sentencing of Lori Berenson, Boucher said, "I think our point all along has been that she deserved a fair trial; she deserved due process. This process appears to have followed Peruvian law, that her defense attorney was able to represent her and able to raise issues that the court, indeed, looked at."

Boucher said Berenson still has a case pending before the Organization of American States' Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, and that this body could decide to refer the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica. Asked if the State Department was satisfied by the Peruvian court's decision, Boucher responded that "we wanted a more open trial. We're satisfied the issues have been raised by her attorney and been looked at. But she still does have ... legal rights and is pursuing them, apparently."

Berenson, a 32-year-old native of New York, has already served six years of her sentence for collaborating in the thwarted attempt by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement to take over Peru's Congress in 1995.