American Should Be Freed, Premier Says
Prime Minister Javier Valle Riestra said the country should pardon and expel American Lori Berenson, jailed on terrorism charges, to defuse “unjust” criticism provoked by her secret military trial. In 1996, anonymous judges sentenced New York native Berenson, now 28, to life in a maximum security prison, branding her a top-ranking Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement member who had plotted to take over Peru’s Congress. President Alberto Fujimori is studying the proposal for Berenson’s pardon, which would require a law change giving him special powers to grant the release, Valle Riestra said.
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