The recent conviction of the principal leaders of Peru's Maoist Shining Path guerrillas will likely not bring an end to the legal battle that has lasted 14 years [IJT-35-33]. Nevertheless, on October 13, Shining Path founder and leader Abimael Guzman, 71, was convicted on seven counts and sentenced to life in prison. The party's second in command and Guzman's lover, Elena Iparraguirre, 59, also received a life sentence and 10 other co-defendants were sentenced to between 25 and 35 years in prison. They were ordered to pay a collective fine of $1.1 billion. Among the crimes included in this "mega trial" were the 1983 massacre of 69 villagers in Santiago de Lucanamarca, 26 assassinations of politicians and military and police officers, and the car bombings of three embassies in Lima. Though Guzman said nothing after the verdict was handed down, just as he had refused to speak to the judges throughout the year-long trial, his lawyers and those of the other defendants quickly announced their intention to appeal the sentences, as did Special Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor Guillermo Cabala. Guzman's attorney, Manuel Fajardo, said he would challenge the verdict on the grounds that due process was not respected and that the court was under intense political pressure to hand down life sentences. "Our problem isn't with the sentence, but with the fact that the court did not resolve the basic question as to whether or not there was a war in Peru. There was a war, so our defendants should have been tried on insurgency not terrorism charges," said Fajardo.

Fajardo's objections also focus on the fact that Guzman had already been tried twice before this current trial got underway in late September 2005, violating the basic principle of double jeopardy. Guzman was arrested on September 12, 1992 and summarily tried and sentenced to life in prison. That sentence was annulled in January 2003, when the Constitutional Tribunal, the country's highest court, declared the anti-terrorism legislation unconstitutional. An initial retrial in November 2004 ended in a mistrial in less than a week when two judges recused themselves.
He also claims that the principle of life in prison has been struck down in Peruvian law by the Constitutional Tribunal's decisions. Human rights lawyers disagree with him on this point, stating that the high court said a life sentence with no chance of parole was unconstitutional, a problem remedied by subsequent legislation that allows life sentences to be reviewed after 35 years. "The decision was written long before," said Fajardo, commenting that he did not expect a positive result from his appeal and is already contemplating the idea of bringing the case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In the meantime, he is waiting for the Constitutional Tribunal's ruling on the 2003 anti-terrorism laws, which is expected by yearend.

A "shameful" verdict

According to special prosecutor Cabala, the verdict is "shameful" because "[e]very one of these defendants deserved a life sentence for the terror they inflicted on our country." According to him, the fine imposed by the court is "a joke" compared to his request to set fines at $20 billion. The Shining Path is accused of causing the deaths of 33,331 people, or 54 percent of the victims in Peru's internal conflict between 1980 and 2000, according to the Truth and Reconciliation's final report from August 2003. One of the worst attacks was that in Lucanamarca, which the court found that Guzman had ordered after the community refused to accept the Maoist party's plans for communal production. Marcelo Casavilca, a survivor of Lucanamarca who lost several family members in the attack, said justice was finally coming to his town. "I was left for dead, with a bullet to the head and machete cuts on my neck. I have waited 23 years for this day," said Casavilca in his testimony against Guzman.