[347] in peace2
Activities Midway // Lori Berenson
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (F. AuYeung)
Tue Aug 29 12:57:01 2000
Message-Id: <200008291656.MAA06145@home-on-the-dome.mit.edu>
To: peace-list@MIT.EDU
cc: thistle@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 12:56:50 -0400
From: "F. AuYeung" <auyeung@MIT.EDU>
Activities Midway not just for new students!
Come by the Midway in the Johnson Athletic Center tonight (August 29)
anytime between 6:30-9:00 and say hi to the crew at Social Justice
Cooperative and the Thistle News Collective!
--------
From: "Mark and Rhoda Berenson" <berenson@freelori.org>
To: <berenson@freelori.org>
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2000 22:36:26 -0400
Subject: Lori Update -- Aug. 28
Monday, August 28, 2000
To Friends and Supporters of Lori Berenson
This is day 1,734 of Lori's wrongful incarceration in Peru.
SUPREME MILITARY COUNCIL OF PERU NULLIFIES LORI'S LIFE SENTENCE - DETERMINES
SHE WAS NOT GUILTY OF AGGREVATED TERRORISM AND TREASON AGAINST THE FATHERLAND
Thanks to all your help over these four years and nine months we have
reached a milestone. The government of Peru has admitted that it made a
mistake, that Lori 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 to the fatherland, and, therefore, her life sentence was
nullified.
But we still have a lot of work ahead - as you will read in our press
statement below we do not believe it would be possible for Lori to get a
fair trial in Peru, even though she is innocent. Now we must pressure the
U.S. government to bring Lori home in freedom.
Press Statement by Rhoda and Mark Berenson
New York City Press Conference -- August 28, 2000
Dismissal of Lori Berenson's Case From Peruvian Military Courts
Peru has now admitted that Lori Berenson was not a leader of MRTA. It
knows she was not even a member. She has been imprisoned in Peru for four
years and nine months under cruel, inhumane, and degrading conditions
without justification. Her health is impaired, permanently we fear.
There is no basis in truth, or law, for holding Lori another day.
For years, the government of Peru has ignored the United Nations High
Commission on Human Rights, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission of
the Organization of American States, President Clinton, President Carter,
the U.S. State Department, the House, the Senate, major international human
rights institutions and organizations, and Lori Berenson herself, protesting
the denial of due process of law in the proceedings against Lori. In this
session 293 members of the U.S. Congress -- 250 members of the House and 43
Senators have demanded Lori Berenson's release. Due process requires that
after four years and nine months without a proper trial Lori must be
released.
It is not possible for Lori Berenson to have a fair trial in Peru under
present conditions. Leading international human rights institutions,
organizations, and authorities, and many concerned parties have recognized
that the Peruvian political leadership and governmental infrastructure
preclude the capability of a fair trial. According to the U.S. State
Department Human Rights Report (February 25, 2000) "Proceedings ... for
terrorism in civilian courts do not meet internationally accepted standards
of openness, fairness and due process."
During the Presidential elections in Peru earlier this year, prejudicial
statements were made by such highly important persons as the President of
the National Penal Superior Court for Terrorism, the President of the
Superior Court of Lima, the official Ombudsman of Peru, a former Peruvian
Minister of Justice, and other jurists, Peruvian Congresspersons and other
government officials as well. When such high-ranking members of the
Peruvian government gratuitously declare Lori Berenson guilty it is obvious
that a fair trial is impossible in Peru. It is time for Lori Berenson to be
freed and returned home.
Rhoda and Mark B.
****************************************************************************
To be silent in the face of injustice is to be an accomplice to evil. I will
not be silent."
Lori Berenson, January 2000
****************************************************************************
