Peru to Keep Ill American Convict in Jail Hospital

          By REUTERS

               AREQUIPA, Peru -- American Lori Berenson, sentenced to life
               imprisonment in Peru on terrorism charges, will stay in a prison
          hospital for a month to recover from ailments caused by freezing,
          high-altitude jail conditions, doctors said Tuesday.

          The New Yorker was transferred last week from the Yanamayo
          maximum-security prison, 12,700 feet above sea level, for medical tests
          at a lower-lying, common criminal jail at Socabaya near the southern city
          of Arequipa.

          Since her arrival, authorities have posted extra armed guards around the
          1997-built women's jail, where Berenson is the only "terrorist" prisoner.

          Convicts imprisoned in Peru on terrorism charges are usually held at top
          security, guerrilla-only wings of old prisons or at purpose-built jails.

          Berenson, 28, was found guilty by a military judge in 1996 of belonging to
          a Marxist rebel group. She is suffering from circulatory and throat illnesses
          caused by the thin air at Yanamayo, the regional institute of prison doctors
          said in a statement.

          The statement, posted on the Socabaya jail's wall, did not say whether
          Berenson will return to the notorious Yanamayo prison in the Andes after
          treatment. Government sources have said she may return once her health
          improves at Socabaya, which lies about 620 miles south of Lima.

          For nearly three years at Yanamayo, Berenson, who says she is innocent,
          spent 23 hours a day in a tiny, poorly-lit cell with a hole in the concrete
          floor as a toilet. Human rights groups have labeled the prison's conditions
          "inhuman."

          Berenson's transfer to Socabaya came as her parents petitioned last week
          the Organization of American States human rights commission in
          Washington to review her case.

          The MIT-educated Berenson was convicted for being a leader of the
          Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. This was the group that later
          held 72 people hostage during a 126-day siege at the Japanese
          ambassador's residence in Lima in 1996-97.

          Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have called
          Berenson's military trial a parody of justice and the United States has
          urged Peru to hear her case in an open civilian court.