(2 Dec 2009)
2 December 2009
1. Wide of news conference given by lawyers of imprisoned Shining Path rebel leader Abimael Guzman
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Alfredo Crespo, Abimael Guzman's lawyer:
"Our client Abimael Guzman Reynoso, is the subject of hostility, harassment. He is being denied visits from his lawyers."
3. Reporters at news conference
4.SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Alfredo Crespo, Abimael Guzman's lawyer:
"They (referring to Guzman and his girlfriend) have decided to get married and they exchange letters regarding the planning, to finalise the details and coordinate the paperwork, and there is interference in their correspondence."
5. Wide of news conference
FILE: September 1992
6. Guzman being presented to media from inside a cage
7. Guzman being escorted by security forces
FILE: October 2006
8. Various shots of Guzman at his last trial in which he was sentenced to life in prison
STORYLINE
A lawyer for Peruvian rebel leader Abimael Guzman said on Wednesday that his client is being subjected to "hostility and harassment" by prison authorities in retaliation for the recent publication of a book of manuscripts written by Guzman in prison.
Alfredo Crespo told reporters in Lima that Guzman is being discriminated against in the prison where he is serving a life sentence.
"Abimael Guzman Reynoso, is the subject of hostility and harassment. He is being denied visits from his lawyers," Crespo said.
Crespo added that Guzman's correspondence is also being intercepted and tampered with as punishment for his recently released book.
The book, entitled "In My Own Hand," details his defence strategy during his retrial on terror charges, correspondence with his long-time lover and details of his childhood.
Its release angered Peruvian authorities, who claim it glorifies extremism.
Guzman, 74, was sentenced to life in prison on terrorism charges by a secret military tribunal after his capture in 1992, but Peru's top court ruled in 2003 that the original sentencing was unconstitutional and ordered a new trial.
He also received a life sentence in the second trial.
The book discusses his legal defence strategy and contains correspondence between Guzman and his longtime lover and second-in-command Elena Iparraguirre.
Iparraguirre was sentenced to life in 2006.
Iparraguire and Guzman are planning to get married, Crespo said.
The book also reveals aspects of his childhood like his love for football and desire to join the military.
Guzman, a former philosophy professor known to his followers as President Gonzalo, considered himself the "Fourth Sword of Marxism" after Karl Marx, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Mao Zedong and preached a messianic vision of a classless utopia based on pure communism.
A government-appointed truth commission found the Shining Path responsible for more than half of the nearly 70-thousand people killed between 1980 and 2000 in Peru's brutal war between rebels and security forces.
The Shining Path was severely weakened following Guzman's capture and his later calls for peace talks.
But bands of rebels have remained active in remote valleys where they produce cocaine and protect drug runners.
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