LIMA, Peru (AP) -- Speaking from prison, New Yorker Lori Berenson
                 said standing up for her principles has taken a devastating toll on her and
                 her family -- but she expects to be freed and ultimately vindicated.

                 "I was really totally appalled when they read the sentence," Berenson told The
                 Associated Press in exclusive comments Thursday.

                 "Unfortunately, I really couldn't show it, basically because I was afraid they
                 would misinterpret any reaction I would have."

                 Berenson, sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison for "terrorist
                 collaboration," was not allowed face-to-face interviews with the media. But she
                 was able to respond on tape to written questions delivered to her from the AP.
                 Her mother, Rhoda, confirmed it was her daughter's voice.

                 "What is positive about this trial is the fact I could actually say the truth, not
                 only about me, but about what I feel about Peru, what I feel about the situation
                 here," Berenson said on the tape.

                 In a previous trial, in 1996, a secret military court convicted and sentenced
                 Berenson to life in prison for allegedly aiding the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary
                 Movement, or MRTA, in a thwarted plot to seize Peru's Congress. The
                 conviction was overturned last August, leading to the new civilian trial.

                 At the time of the first trial, a scowling Berenson refused to condemn the
                 MRTA, which she called a "revolutionary movement." The statement convinced
                 many Peruvians she was guilty.

                 But the 31-year-old said she was convicted for her beliefs, not her actions.
                 Berenson, who describes herself as a prisoner of conscience, said authorities
                 have unfairly portrayed her concern for social justice for the poor as a terrorist
                 agenda.

                 "I'm being sentenced because I didn't go back on my beliefs," Berenson said,
                 "because I didn't condemn anyone, because I am condemning the system,
                 because I am condemning human rights violations and a government that totally
                 violated human fundamental rights, economic rights and was totally corrupt."

                 Her parents have lobbied intensely for her freedom, attending every session of
                 her three-month civilian retrial.

                 Her father, Mark, said Thursday that watching his daughter being led out of
                 court after sentencing was one of the saddest moments of his life. "My heart
                 was ripped apart when she turned around to leave and I wasn't able to take her
                 home with me," he said.

                 Berenson said her parents' anguish was one of the hardest things for her to
                 face. "To me, the tremendous cost is the fact that I see how this whole situation
                 has, on the one hand, really united my family, but on the other, has really
                 destroyed them."

                 She said her latest conviction was based on the same strict anti-terrorism laws
                 decreed by former President Alberto Fujimori in 1992 during a state of
                 emergency. Human rights groups roundly criticized those laws, saying they led
                 to torture and the wrongful imprisonment of hundreds of innocent people.

                 Berenson's supporters contend that Fujimori's government trumped up charges
                 against her to bolster its image as being tough on terrorism. Fujimori has since
                 fled to Japan amid a mounting corruption scandal. Berenson's supporters are
                 holding out hope that President-elect Alejandro Toledo will pardon her.

                 But Peruvian political analysts note that Toledo doesn't want to be thought of as
                 being soft on terrorism or as interfering with the courts at a time when the
                 fragile democracy is rebuilding institutions eroded by the autocratic Fujimori.

                 "There is the primary issue of fairness. Why Berenson and not all the other
                 prisoners?" said political analyst Mirko Lauer, referring to thousands of people
                 convicted under Fujimori's anti-terrorism laws.

                 "Letting Berenson go would deliver a message that you are potentially soft on
                 terrorism," he said.

                 Berenson expressed confidence that she would be freed on appeal, either by
                 Peru's Supreme Court or by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

                 John Hamilton, the U.S. ambassador to Peru, said Thursday that if Berenson
                 fails to win an appeal, she would have the option of serving out her time in the
                 United States under a prisoner transfer treaty between the two countries.

                 But Berenson said: "I don't want a transfer. I want justice. I think that it's very
                 important that there be justice. I'm no criminal."

                   Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.