Page 19 - MIN JUS 1 DEC 2015
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WORLD NEWSTuesday 1 December 2015
Peru: Brazil’s House
Speaker denies
US activist heading home after serving sentence bribery report
FRANK BAJAK In this Friday, Nov 27, 2015 photo, U.S. activist Lori Berenson looks out from her residence in Lima, JENNY BARCHFIELD
Associated Press Associated Press
LIMA, Peru (AP) — Ameri- Peru. Berenson is heading home to New York, two decades after being found guilty of aiding RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) —
can activist Lori Berenson The embattled speaker
is finally heading home to leftist rebels. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia) of Brazil’s House of Repre-
New York, two decades sentatives has vehemently
after being found guilty of and take lawmakers hos- meters) altitude, where her New York in December denied reports that a doc-
aiding leftist rebels in Peru. tage. health suffered. 2011, but Peru’s Congress ument seized in a corrup-
The 46-year-old has been Berenson denies knowl- After U.S. pressure and a subsequently passed a tion probe suggests he re-
living quietly in Lima with edge of the plot, but she legal defense aided by law barring foreigners con- ceived nearly $12 million to
her 6-year-old son since rented and lived in the former U.S. Attorney Gen- victed of terrorism-related support legislation favoring
her 2010 parole because safe house where it was eral Ramsey Clark, Beren- crimes from travel. a top investment bank.
she was barred from leav- being planned and was son was retried in a civilian Berenson is amicably di- In a late-night barrage of
ing the country until her arrested with the wife of a court in 2001. vorced from the boy’s fa- about 20 tweets on Sun-
20-year sentence lapsed. rebel leader after visiting Berenson apologized pub- ther, a former Tupac Ama- day, Eduardo Cunha dis-
Berenson told The Associ- congress with a journalist’s licly in 2010 as a condition ru militant she met in prison missed the reports as a
ated Press that occurred visa. for obtaining parole but in 1997. “true absurdity,” saying
on Sunday. She was initially convicted was re-incarcerated for Alberto Fujimori, who was they appeared to be part
Fearing being mobbed by of treason in 1996 by a three months that year on president when Beren- of a plot against him.
reporters on departure, she court of hooded military a technicality. son was arrested, is now The denials followed the
would not disclose details judges and sent for nearly She and her son Salvador, imprisoned in Peru on hu- publication Sunday of a
of her travel plans. She said three years to a frigid pris- who was born behind bars, man rights and corruption story on the website of
she obtained a bachelor’s on at 12,700 feet (3,870 vacationed with family in convictions.q Rio de Janeiro’s O Globo
degree in sociology online newspaper saying inves-
last year and plans to live tigators seized the docu-
in New York City with her ment implicating Cunha
parents until she gets es- in the home of an aide to
tablished. Sen. Delcidio do Amaral,
A daughter of college pro- the governing Workers’
fessors, she dropped out of Party’s leader in the Sen-
the Massachusetts Institute ate.
of Technology and head- Amaral, his aide, Diogo
ed to Latin America to sup- Ferreira, billionaire banker
port leftist movements. She Andre Esteves and an at-
worked for El Salvador reb- torney were detained last
els before traveling to Peru week in connection with
in late 1994. the mushrooming probe
She was convicted of into corruption at Brazil’s
“collaborating with ter- state-run oil giant Petro-
rorism” for assisting the Tu- bras.
pac Amaru Revolutionary The report in O Globo said
Movement as it prepared the document seized in Fer-
in 1995 to seize congress reira’s residence stipulated
that in exchange for pas-
17 dead in fight at overcrowded Guatemala prison sage of legislation favoring
Esteves’ BTG Pactual bank,
SONIA PEREZ D. out Sunday afternoon in heads of three men, ap- had removed 16 bodies the institution “paid Repre-
Associated Press the Canada Rehabilita- parently the leaders of from the prison and they sentative Eduardo Cunha
ESCUINTLA, Guatemala tion Farm about 45 miles a group, on top of a ta- were still being identified. the sum of $11.7 million.”
(AP) — Seventeen prison- (70 kilometers) south of the ble. No one was killed or Elsa Rodriguez said she The note supposedly add-
ers were killed in a gang capital. wounded by gunfire, he identified her son Estu- ed that other lawmakers
brawl inside an overcrowd- “All were killed by machete said. Another government ardo Gregorio Rodriguez, from Cunha’s opposition
ed Guatemalan prison, in- and knife wounds,” said official said earlier that the 23, from a photograph party also received part of
cluding seven who were Mijangos, who entered the fight started with gunfire. a funeral home employ- the bribe and that Cunha,
decapitated, officials said prison. Officials found 16 Prison system spokesman ee showed her. She was Esteves and the others had
Monday. bodies together inside and Rudy Esquivel said the pris- among about 100 people a celebratory dinner to-
Victor Mijangos, assistant one more prisoner died of on was designed to hold waited outside a morgue gether after the passage
prosecutor for the Escuintla his wounds at a hospital. 600 inmates, but houses for the victims’ bodies to be of the legislation, in March
district, said the fight broke He said officials found the 3,092. He said firefighters released to their families.q 2013.q
