American imprisoned in Peru gives birth

New York native Lori Berenson gave birth Wednesday to a boy in Peru, where she is serving a 20-year sentence for collaborating with leftist guerrillas in the 1990s, her father said.

The baby, Salvador Anespori Apari Berenson, was delivered by cesarean section in a civilian hospital in Lima, the capital. The boy’s father is a former member of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement whom Berenson met in jail and married in 2003.

“I’m just ecstatic. This child will likely be my only grandchild and I’m going to spoil him if I can,” said Mark Berenson, a former college professor.

Lori Berenson, a 39-year-old former Massachusetts Institute of Technology student, was arrested in 1995 and sentenced under anti-terrorism laws to life in prison by a military court the following year. A civilian court retried her in 2000, convicting her of the lesser crime of terrorist collaboration and reducing her sentence.

She denies any wrongdoing and maintains that she is a political prisoner.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the legal arm of the Organization of American States, upheld the civilian court’s ruling in 2004, closing Berenson’s last avenue to formally appeal her sentence.

She will be eligible for parole in November 2010. Peruvian law permits her to raise the child in prison until age 3. He will have U.S. and Peruvian citizenship. According to her sentence, Berenson will be expelled from Peru upon her release.

The father, Anibal Apari, was released from prison in 2003 and is a lawyer in Lima.