LIMA, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- American activist Lori Berenson was back in prison in Peru Friday after losing a parole bid amid a gathering storm of protests over her past association with the Marxist Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, blamed for gratuitous violence during the 1980s and '90s.
Lori Berenson, a Lima resident, was arrested in 1995 and sentenced to life imprisonment for MRTA links but appealed and had the sentence reduced to 20 years.
A parole decision outraged Chileans and was swiftly followed by an appeals court judgment that struck it down amid accusations that Berenson's appearance with her 15-month-old son was a ploy to win public and judicial sympathy.
Justice Minister Victor Garcia Toma said authorities could have avoided the scene where Berenson was filmed holding the boy, Salvador, while being taken into custody. "Certainly a baby can't be used to create a masquerade of victimization," said Toma.
Berenson married a prison inmate, Anibal Apari, who later became her defense lawyer although the couple separated.
Apari dismissed the criticism, saying Berenson happened to be with her son at a meeting at the U.S. Embassy when the court ordered her arrest. He accused the media and high-ranking Chileans of fomenting a hostile attitude to Berenson. UPI
