The Fight To Free Lori Berenson

When your 30-year-old daughter's been in jail in Peru for four years, serving a life sentence for charges she says are false, and you believe to be false, it's not necessarily an encouraging sign to hear that she will get a new trial.

That's the message from Rhoda and Mark Berenson, the parents of accused revolutionary Lori Berenson, who this week learned that she would get a new trial.

In an interview with CBS News Early Show Anchor Bryant Gumbel, Mark Berenson says he doesn't view the announcement of a planned new trial as good news.

Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who has long maintained that Berenson was a leader of the Tupac Amaru rebels, said Monday that a military court was obligated to revoke her life prison term and grant a civilian trial because of evidence suggesting she was not a leader of the leftist group.

Fujimori at the same time said that "the fact that the case has been passed to the civilian court does not mean she is going to go free...The penal code is clear. Terrorism is also punished in the civilian court. The minimum is 20 years and there are also life sentences."

AP Photo The parents of jailed American Lori Berenson say her psychological strength has allowed her to survive over four years of horrific conditions.

A military court found Berenson guilty of treason by in 1996 for helping plot a foiled attack on the Peruvian Congress by the Tupac Amaru, better known by the Spanish acronym MRTA. She has repeatedly denied any association with the MRTA.

But in Peru, even sympathy for terrorism is a crime.

Rhoda Berenson says they don't know yet when the new, civilian trial will begin, but they do know "there is no jury, the judges are appointed by the president. It's not an independent judiciary and that's what the human rights community has been complaining about all along."

Lori's father says he believes Fujimori's motive in allowing a new trial now is to appease human rights organizations.

"The State Department has said that the courts that try cases like this, the civilian courts, do not meet international standards of openness, fairness and due process," explains Mark Berenson.

"The State Department spokesman said the other day that what Peru did now, was a very good first step. But he said the State Department doesn't believe Peru has the infrastructure to give Lori a trial. Would you want your child as a sacrificial lamb for the government?" he continued.

Mark Berenson also says he's not satisfied with what the U.S. has done to help his daughter. "In America, a person is always presumed innocent unil found guilty. I think the State Department has wronged us by never having taken a stand on (Lori's) innocence or guilt."

International pressure has mounted on Fujimori to improve Peru's damaged democracy since he claimed victory in a May presidential runoff, amid irregularities and allegations of fraud.

Besides pushing for reforms to Peru's legal system, the Organization of American States has also insisted that Fujimori comply with the rulings of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Both parents are absolutely sure that their daughter is not guilty of anything more than showing "love and concern for the people" of Peru.

Her father says she "went up on stage...screaming her love and concern...outraged by the treatment of (a woman) held in a rat-infested cell...It drove her to express her outrage. Lori is a compassionate person. So I'm asking all people of goodwill to stand behind us. America has been wronged and that wrong must be righted."

He last saw Lori ten days ago. "We can't talk to her by phone," says her mother, who alternates with her husband in making trips to Peru every few weeks. "She's in a cell, no phone, no outlet to the outside world."

The years in jail have taken their physical toll. "She has circulatory problems, her hands are a problem, she loses vision in her right eye, it comes back during the day. It's part of the circulatory problem because of lack of proper food, oxygen, and the high altitude," says Mark Berenson.

The former Massachusetts Institute of Technology student was transferred early Tuesday from the Socabaya prison in Peru's southern Andes to an unspecified penitentiary in the capital, Lima.

There has not been an outpouring of sympathy for Berenson from Peruvians, who were caught in the cross fire of rebel violence during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Burned into their memories is the image of Berenson's public pre-sentence declaration in 1996 in which she angrily screamed support for Peru's poor and shouted, "There are no criminal terrorists in the MRTA. It is a revolutionary movement." The statement was considered by many in Peru to be an admission of guilt.

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, a legal adviser for Berenson's family in New York, says a new trial is unjustified.

"We will resist a trial. She's been held now for four years and nine months and it has been admitted that she was held in error," said Clark.

For years, the Clinton administration has urged Peru to grant Berenson a new trial, arguing that the secret nature of her trial didn't meet due process standards.

Opposition politicians within Peru charge that the surprise decision by the military court is just one more example of government manipulation of Peru's legal system. They furthermore accuse the Fujimori government of caving in to international pressure.

Prime Minister Federico Salas has denied the allegation.

"The cental government doesn't meddle in the military or civilian courts," said Salas.

The Berensons say they don't view this trial as their daughter's "last shot" at freedom.

"We'll be in it until the end," vows Mark Berenson. "I'm 58, I feel like I'm 100, but she's my daughter. I believe in her. I will fight until my dying breath to get her out. She has not had justice...the only justice she could have is freedom and I'm going to fight for that."

CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report