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was only a few meters away. When Cantoral-Benavides was transferred to the
“Miguel Castro-Castro” prison in Lima, there was what is known as a “locutorio,”
which is very small room where the lawyer can speak with his client through a thick
glass window, making it necessary for them to shout or write messages on a piece of
paper, since they could hardly hear each other.
Five lawyers were next to them
talking to five other inmates, which made it even more difficult to carry on a
conversation. Lawyers were given 15 minutes, once or twice a week, to meet with
their clients.
Mr. Cantoral-Benavides told him, in detail, of the torture he was subjected to.
Cantoral had suffered considerable injury, but emphasized that he was more
interested in gaining his freedom than in denouncing his mistreatment. However,
since he was abused while he was in the prison in Cachiche, the Prosecutor in Ica
was asked to investigate this situation. The situation in which Cantoral-Benavides
found himself, and his fear of reprisal and psychological trauma, made it very
difficult to lodge complaints regarding torture; furthermore, at the time, the crime of
torture was not clearly defined in the laws of Peru.
The Supreme Council of Military Justice acquitted Luis Alberto Cantoral-Benavides of
the crime of treason against the fatherland and ordered his immediate release in a
judgment rendered on August 11, 1993, but it was never carried out. The witness
was not notified of the decision and did not find out about it until a month later,
when he filed a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of three persons who were being
tried in the same proceeding. Immediately, he submitted a writ of habeas corpus on
behalf of Mr. Cantoral-Benavides, but it was declared inadmissible, since the judge,
while studying the case, found that the Chief Military Prosecutor had presented an
extraordinary motion for review of the judgment rendered on August 11, 1993. This
was an illegal and unconstitutional motion which was not, and is still not, covered in
criminal legislation; review is only permitted in the case of persons who have been
convicted. Said motion was based on alleged new evidence related to a handwriting
analysis of documents allegedly prepared by Luis Alberto Cantoral-Benavides and
others on trial, which led to the judgment of acquittal being reviewed and modified,
even though same was res judicata. He was not notified of the presentation of this
motion for review by the Chief Military Prosecutor.
The Council of Military Justice decided, in a judgment rendered on September 24,
1993, to remit the case to the regular jurisdiction, where the defendant was to be
tried for terrorism. Also, it revoked the release order issued on behalf of Cantoral in
the judgment of August 11, and interposed, before the Superior Court of Lima, an
extraordinary motion for review of the judgment of September 24, which was
declared inadmissible by said court. The file was sent to the Provincial Prosecutor for
the 43rd District of the regular jurisdiction. He was never informed of this officially,
and had to wait until a “meeting of parties” to learn that Luis Alberto CantoralBenavides was being accused of terrorism based on the aforementioned handwriting
evidence. He did not see the originals of same, and was only allowed to see
photocopies when the trial began in the regular courts, because, apparently, this
evidence was submitted after the trial in the military jurisdiction had concluded.
There, Cantoral-Benavides was charged with preparing the documents in question
and belonging to the subversive movement Sendero Luminoso.
Since the
photocopies were blurry and illegible, he requested the opinion of an expert witness
for the defense during the investigation stage of the trial. Handwriting samples were
taken during the oral proceeding. This evidence showed that Luis Alberto CantoralBenavides had not prepared said documents. The experts who had conducted the