Life imprisonment for Abimael Guzmán and nine other leaders of Sendero Lumimoso in Peru

[OyaYansa]

The terrorist leader, 83, accumulates a second sentence for life

 

A Peruvian court imposed a life sentence on Tuesday on ten leaders of the Maoist Shining Path guerrilla, including its historical leader Abimael Guzman, who had already served a life-long prison sentence for a car bombing that killed 25 people in Lima in 1992.

The three judges of Collegiate A of the National Criminal Chamber handed down a sentence at the end of a six-hour hearing, broadcast live on television, after 20 months of trial for the attack on Tarata Street, Lima district of Miraflores, perpetrated on July 16, 1992.

The Senderistas prosecuted in this case were 12, but Elizabeth Cárdenas was acquitted and Moisés Limaco did not receive a sentence because he is a fugitive, although he attended pre-trial hearings, which began in February 2017.

Meanwhile, the court acquitted all Sendero leaders of charges of "illicit drug trafficking" for lack of evidence. Among those convicted are Guzman's wife, Elena Yparraguirre, and leaders Osman Morote and Margot Liendo, who are now under house arrest.

The hearing was held at the naval base in Callao, a port near Lima, and Guzmán, dressed in a brown coat and black shirt with white stripes, remained crestfallen seated next to the other defendants. The car bomb attack on Tarata Street shocked Peru, as it was the first time a civilian target was the target of an attack in Lima. The scene was of terror, because it left 25 dead and more than a hundred injured.

With this ruling, Guzmán, 83, has accumulated a second life sentence he has already completed since 1992.