After almost three months of freedom following her nearly 15 years in Peruvian prisons, it looks like American citizen and New York native Lori Berenson is going back to prison. Today Deputy Justice Minister Luis Marill "ordered the capture of Berenson and her immediate imprisonment," and Bloomberg News reports that her re-arrest could come "in the coming hours." The urge to make a run for the border must be unbearable for Berenson right now, but her release outraged many Peruvians who perceived her as a terrorist for her participation in a foiled terrorist plot to take the Peruvian Congress hostage in the mid-'90s—and one assumes the Peruvian government has been watching her very closely.
After being sentenced to life in prison in 1995—and giving birth to a son in jail—Berenson was granted conditional parole at the end of May, with the stipulation that she must remain in the country for another five years. But prosecutors insist she should be returned to prison because she was released a few months before completing 15 years of a 20-year sentence—parole in Peru is usually granted only after prisoners serve three-quarters of their terms, Reuters reports. Prosecutors also say she still had links to the rebel group, and pointed to errors in the parole ruling.
At a hearing Monday, Berenson was contrite, telling a panel of judges, "Yes, I collaborated with the MRTA. I was never a leader or a militant. I never participated in violent or bloody acts. I never killed anybody. If my participation contributed to societal violence I am very sorry for this." Berenson asked the court to commute her sentence so she could seek medical treatment in the U.S. Now another judge will review the panel's decision and rule on whether Berenson must serve out the rest of her sentence in jail. According to the Daily News, whatever the outcome, she will have exhausted her appeals.
