Lori: My Daughter Imprisoned Peru(c

The grueling experiences described by Berenson constitute a crash course in the arbitrary horrors of human rights abuses. Since December 1995, 30-year-old Lori Berenson, an American citizen from New York, has been imprisonedDin appalling conditionsDin Peru. She was found guilty of treason for allegedly conspiring to attack the Peruvian Congress as a member of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and sentenced to life imprisonment by a hooded military tribunal who refused to allow her attorney to present evidence or question witnesses. This dramatic and engrossing account by Lori's mother details the long struggle she and her husband, Mark, have endured in trying to get their daughter's sentence overturned. Both of them have given up their academic careers to dedicate their full-time efforts to a campaign to free Lori. Berenson forcefully argues that Lori was not a terrorist but a journalist, with valid press credentials, who had written about social and economic injustice in Peru. Just last month, Lori's conviction was in fact overturned, and she was granted a civilian trial. Because political conditions are now so unstable in Peru (President Fujimori is stepping down because of a scandal), her fate is uncertain, but her parents are hoping that she will be released. (Nov. 1)