- Title: Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman on trial for 1992 bombing
- Date: 6th June 2017
- Summary: LIMA, PERU (JUNE 6, 2017) (REUTERS) SHINING PATH FOUNDER, ABIMAEL GUZMAN, GREETING PEOPLE AS HE ARRIVES FOR COURT HEARING GUZMAN STANDING AMONGST PEOPLE IN COURTROOM GUZMAN TALKING TO COURT OFFICIAL GENERAL VIEW OF HEARING IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) LAWYER FOR THE PROSECUTION, EMILY CARHUAMACA, SAYING: "They (Shining Path) directly participated in the car bomb attack that took place in Tarata St in the Miraflores district on July 16, 1992. These documents, we believe, prove that all members of the People's Aid Committee, which had four departments among them the Central Zone Committee, carried out functions that supported the Shining Path starting in 1985 in agreement with the Central Committee in order to carry out terrorist attacks. Likewise, it will be corroborated that the People's Aid Committee carried out specific tasks and had specific slogans that depended directly on the Central Section which was headed by the accused." AUDIENCE DURING HEARING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DEFENCE LAWYER ADDRESSING, HUGO NAVANO, SAYING: "The official from the Interior Ministry is out of place because that finality has received approval. So, I want to make the following clear. Firstly, the Central Committee did not devise it, did not agree to it, did not order or put it forward. It is not part of the general political standing or its military centre. There is no specific plan that follows this, it is not the policy of the Peruvian Communist Party... the event which occurred in Tarata." JUDGES DURING HEARING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) JUDGE RENE MARTINEZ, SAYING: "Documents offered by the Attorney General for terrorism cases have been admitted and will be evaluated in due course." JUDGES ANNOUNCING END OF HEARING PEOPLE STANDING UP AT END OF HEARING GUZMAN WAVING AT END OF HEARING GUZMAN SAYING GOOD-BYE AT END OF HEARING DEFENCE TEAM WALKING IN AREA NEAR COURTHOUSE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) GUZMAN'S LAWYER, ALFREDO CRESPO, SAYING: "Despite his deteriorated health he (Guzman) is participating with this process."
- Embargoed: 20th June 2017 22:51
- Keywords: bombing trail Tarata Abimael Guzman Shining Path founder
- Location: LIMA, PERU
- City: LIMA, PERU
- Country: Peru
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Crime
- Reuters ID: LVA0016K555J7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The founder of the Maoist-inspired rebel group the Shining Path was in a Lima court on Tuesday (June 6) as prosecutors in Peru push for a life sentence to be handed down to Abimael Guzman for allegedly ordering a bombing in Lima that killed 25 people in 1992.
Guzman is already serving a life sentence for having led the Shining Path's attempt to overthrow the state.
The 1992 car-bomb attack on Tarata Street in the upscale district of Miraflores was part of the Shining Path's bid to take its militancy to the capital from rural Peru and helped build support for a crackdown on suspected rebels by former President Alberto Fujimori.
The bombing was the Shining Path's bloodiest attack in Lima and followed massacres in indigenous villages in the Andes and Amazon that resisted the group's control.
Presenting their evidence, prosecutors talked up reported links between aid groups and the Shining Path.
But Guzman's defence has argued that lower-ranking Shining Path leaders in Lima ordered the Tarata Street bombing and denied their client was involved.
They have also talked up Guzman's good will to attend the hearing despite his reported deteriorating health.
Prosecutors argue Guzman and other former Shining Path leaders, all of whom are already in prison, should receive life sentences and pay reparations for the Tarata Street bombing.
The Shining Path launched one of the deadliest internal conflicts in Latin America in the 1980s. An estimated 69,000 people were killed in the conflict, according to a truth commission. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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