US embassy cable - 05LIMA3798

C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 003798 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/31/2015 
TAGS: PTER, KJUS, PREL, ASEC, PE 
SUBJECT: UPDATE ON ANTI-TERRORISM TRIALS IN PERU 
 
REF: A. 04 LIMA 5721 
 
     B. 04 LIMA 5406 
 
Classified By: D/Polcouns Art Muirhead for Reason 1.4 (B, D) 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY: According to Anti-Terrorism judges, 
convictions are expected in the "megatrials" of the 
Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru (MRTA) and Sendero 
Luminoso (SL) leaders.  The defendants in the El Polo bombing 
case may be acquitted, however, but should remain in jail on 
other charges.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2. (C) MRTA: Associate Judge Enma Benavides, who is a member 
of the panel hearing the MRTA case, told D/Polcouns on 8/29 
that the trial was moving ahead as expected, and should be 
wrapping up soon.  Even though the MRTA case is more complex 
than that of SL, because it relies more on testimony of 
witnesses rather than documentary evidence, Benavides was 
convinced that the major MRTA figures (founder Victor Polay 
and 12 other leaders) would be convicted.  She was more 
concerned about what would happen in subsequent trials 
involving hundreds of less important members of MRTA, who 
must also be retried in accord with the 2003 Constitutional 
Tribunal decision overturning convictions given out during 
the Fujimori regime (Ref A).  In many cases, the three-year 
limit by which a case must come to trial in Peru will soon 
expire, and barring a new judicial finding, many defendants 
would have to be released. 
 
3. (C) Sendero Luminoso: Anti-Terrorism Court Chief Judge 
Pablo Talavera and Associate Judge Jimena Cayo met with 
Econcouns and D/Polcouns on 8/31 to discuss a number of 
judicial matters, including the status of the megatrial of SL 
founder Abimael Guzman and 20 co-defendants.  Talavera has 
worked very carefully to put this case back on track after 
the chaotic first attempt last November that ended in a 
mistrial (Ref B).  He said sessions would begin on 9/26, and 
that the trial would finish no later than March. 
 
4. (C) Talavera said that despite the difficulties in 
locating and bringing to Lima witnesses to events that took 
place years ago, some in remote areas of the country, guilty 
verdicts for the principal SL figures were a foregone 
conclusion.  Police raids of SL hideouts, culminating with 
the capture of Guzman in 1992, produced a wealth of 
meticulous SL records which documented the planning of 
specific terrorist attacks.  The prosecutor has asked for 
life sentences for Guzman and five other high-ranking 
Senderistas, as well as 3 billion soles (almost a billion 
dollars) in reparations to the State.  Talavera confided that 
although it was somewhat irregular, he planned to meet with 
Guzman before the beginning of the trial to make it clear 
that he would not permit the kind of outbursts by defendants 
in the courtroom that contributed to the November mistrial. 
 
5. (C) El Polo Bombing: The justices were less sanguine about 
the chances of a guilty verdict for the SL members accused of 
setting off a car bomb in March 2002 at the El Polo shopping 
center across from the U.S. Embassy.  Talavera said there was 
a lack of evidence directly linking the accused to this 
particular attack, and Cayo noted that some of the evidence 
presented by the police was inadmissible, as it was obtained 
in an illegal search.  The judges noted, however, that at 
least some of the SL members accused in this case would 
remain in jail, as they were already serving time for other 
crimes.  Lima media reported on 8/31 that a decision in the 
El Polo case might be announced as early as 9/1. 
 
6. (U) In a sidelight to the SL trial, the mother of Guzman's 
paramour Elena Iparraguirre announced last week that the 
couple, who have been separated for several months after 
spending years in adjacent cells at the Callao Naval Base, 
would seek permission to marry.  The head of the National 
Penal Institute, Wilfredo Pedraza, said there was no 
impediment under Peruvian law to a marriage between 
prisoners.  He noted, however, that if the two were to marry, 
they would continue to be housed in separate prisons. 
STRUBLE