Lori Berenson, Date of Birth, Place of Birth

    

Lori Berenson

translator, unpublished journalist

Date of Birth: 13-Nov-1969

Place of Birth: New York City, New York, United States

Profession: translator, journalist, terrorist

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio


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About Lori Berenson

  • Lori Helene Berenson (born November 13, 1969) is an American convicted felon, who served a 20-year prison sentence for collaboration with a terrorist organization in Peru in 1996.
  • Berenson worked with the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), a group accused of trying to overthrow the Peruvian government by force, and is considered a terrorist organization by the Peruvian government.
  • The MRTA was placed on the U.S.
  • State Department's official "terrorist organization" list from 1997–2001.
  • Her arrest and conviction, and the circumstances surrounding her trials, drew considerable attention in both the United States and Peru. After securing press credentials for herself and a photographer, and after visiting Peru's Congress to interview some of its members and attend sessions where she took notes and sketched a seating plan, Berenson was arrested on a public bus along with the photographer.
  • Her photographer turned out to be the wife of a top MRTA leader, a fact which Berenson stated she was unaware of at that time.
  • The MRTA is alleged to have intended to use the information to seize lawmakers and exchange the hostages for imprisoned MRTA members.
  • The house she rented in Lima was found to contain an arsenal of weapons and ammunition, together with armed guerrillas who violently resisted capture.
  • She denied knowing of the presence of either the weaponry or the guerrillas, and she also denied knowing that the documents she prepared would be used for terrorism.
  • In 2011 she admitted that she had known that her associates were MRTA members and she said: "It might not have been intentional, but the bottom line is: I did collaborate with them." In the same interview she maintained that she had not been aware that weapons were being amassed in the upper floors of her house which she had sublet to the MRTA members, and she also maintained that she was unaware that violent actions were being planned at the Congress, stating that "at that time in Fujimori's dictatorship, Congress was the only place that there was some sort of democratic process."Shortly after her arrest, she made an angry statement, alleging that the MRTA was not a terrorist group, but was instead a revolutionary movement.After she was tried in 1996 by a military tribunal with a hooded judge and sentenced to life imprisonment, Berenson became "a cause celebre for human rights campaigners and a symbol for leftwing social activists around the world", except in Peru, where parties and newspapers across the political spectrum condemned her actions, and criticized the unwillingness of European and American media, even progressive ones, to apply the label 'terrorist' to first world citizens.
  • Although publicly known judges had previously been killed in Peru by the MRTA, other elements of her trial were considered to be both violations of human rights and lacking in impartiality, provoking controversy in the United States and other countries.
  • In particular, she was allegedly denied the right to examine the government's evidence and witnesses.
  • She was convicted of treason and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
  • In 2000, following a change of government in Peru, her conviction was overturned and she received a new trial.
  • She was found guilty of collaboration with terrorism and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
  • She served 15 years, and was granted conditional release in May 2010.
  • In August 2010, an appeals court ordered that Berenson be rearrested and required to serve out the remainder of her sentence.
  • On November 5, 2010, a Peruvian judge ordered that she be released from prison.
  • While on parole, she was required to remain in Peru until her sentence ended.
  • In December 2015, after completing her sentence, Berenson returned to New York to live with her family.

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