A Step Toward Freedom?

Amid political upheaval in Peru, efforts to free American journalist and activist Lori Berenson from a Peruvian prison may have taken a small step forward this season. A Supreme Military Council of Peru nullified her life sentence. This fall, the Peruvian government admitted that Berenson was never a leader of a terrorist group, that she should not have been tried by a military tribunal, that she was not guilty of treason, and, therefore, her life sentence was nullified. Berenson now faces a trial in civilian court, although most doubt that this trial will meet standards of due process or openness. Berenson still maintains her innocence.

Also this fall, Rhoda Berenson, Lori’s mother, has just published a new book, Lori: My Daughter, Wrongfully Imprisoned in Peru (Context Books, www.contextbooks.com), with a forward by Noam Chomsky and an afterword by Ramsey Clark. Berenson, formerly a teacher, has worked non-stop with her husband for the past four and half years to free her daughter. See www.freelori.org.