Notes on Lori Berenson

I don't know the truth of the Lori Berenson case. Berenson has languished in Peruvian prisons since late 1995 when she was accused of being a member of a Cuban-style revel movement, the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). First convicted by military tribunal in accordance with draconian anti-terrorism laws, Berenson was later given a civilian trial after those laws, and the convictions from the courts they spawned, were overturned by Peru's Supreme Council of Military Justice. Sadly for her, the civilian court (which was clearly no model of fine jurisprudence either) convicted her again. Last month that conviction was upheld by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica. Berenson will likely remain in jail until 2015.

There can be no doubt that Berenson has been mistreated. But several things are troubling. This website, which documents that mistreatment, completely ignores the fact that part of the house she rented in Lima was sub-let by (according to The Economist) "more than a dozen heavily armed MRTA guerrillas." Indeed, they speak little of the accusations against her, other than to call them "preposterous." The site also claims Berenson was subjected to double jeopardy, a claim that wouldn't be accurate even under US standards of justice.

But therein lies the biggest problem of all. When a well-meaning American moves to another country, even if it's truly to do good, he should go with the full awareness that he is no longer protected by our notion of proper jurisprudence. I truly hope justice is done for Berenson. (Admittedly, though, she's done herself n0 favors with her videotaped outburst defending the MRTA as a "revolutionary movement" in a country that has been riven by terrorism, or with her marriage to an MRTA militant she met in prison.) Perhaps it already has been, and perhaps not; if nothing else, this sad episode should serve as a reminder to those who denigrate American justice that we are truly blessed to have what we have here.