The leader of a Cuban-inspired guerrilla group that grabbed the world's attention nearly 10 years ago with a takeover of the Japanese ambassador's residence was sentenced to 32 years in prison in a civilian retrial.
Victor Polay, 54, stood with his hands clasped in front of his waist as the verdict was read by a court clerk late on Tuesday at the end of a more than three-hour court session that was broadcast live on state-run television. With time served, he is scheduled for release in 2023.
Polay and nearly a dozen other top leaders of the Tupac Amaru Rebel movement had faced 20 years to life for some 29 crimes between 1987 and 1995, including kidnappings, assassinations and attacks on a KFC restaurant and the former US embassy compound.
Polay's second-in-command, Miguel Rincon -- who was caught plotting a hostage takeover of congress in 1995 to press for the release of rebel prisoners -- also received a 32-year sentence. Other sentences ranged from 18 to 28 years.
A petition published on Friday in the newspaper La Republica signed by more than 110 artists, politicians, social scientists and celebrities, asked for leniency for Polay, saying he had suffered "subhuman" treatment in prison since 1992, when a hooded military tribunal handed him a life sentence.
Peru's Constitutional Tribunal in 2003 ruled that the secret military courts created by former president Alberto Fujimori in the 1990s were unconstitutional.
Peru amended its anti-terrorism laws to bring them in line with international due process standards and prosecutors brought new charges in civilian court against the rebels who had been convicted in military court.
Unlike the Maoist-inspired Shining Path, which was known for wholesale massacres, Tupac Amaru tried to cultivate a Robin Hood image, distributing food from hijacked trucks in poor neighborhoods.
It staged its most notorious attack in December 1996, when 14 of its guerrillas stormed a cocktail party at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima, taking hostages to be bartered for imprisoned comrades. A four-month standoff ended in April 1997 with a daring commando raid that succeeded in rescuing 71 hostages.
One of the hostages was killed, as were all the rebels. The group has been dormant since that incident.
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