UPDATE ON ANTI-TERRORISM TRIALS IN PERU

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 =======================CABLE ENDS============================