News from Lori's Parents

In this update:

Human Rights Court accepts Lori's case for review

On September 6, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica notified the involved parties that it admitted for review the petition filed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Lori's behalf against the government of Perú. In a blow to the government of Perú, however, the Court refused to treat, as a separate case, Perú's counter-petition against the Commission's recommendation in favor of Lori. Perú must now convince the Court that the Commission's recommendation was incorrect.

Given the Court's previous rulings in similar cases and the Commission's detailed and severe condemnation of the judicial processes in Lori's case, we would hope that the government of Perú would see the fruitlessness of expensive litigation and accept the Commission's recommendation now, and not insist that Lori endure more years of imprisonment awaiting the Court's ruling.

President Toledo states Perú will abide by court ruling

In a press conference held September 14 in Washington DC, Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo declared that his government will fully adhere to the ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Lori's case.

Peruvian Foreign Minister Allan Wagner Tizon opined that the Court ruling could be forthcoming in one to one-and-a-half years. Other "guestimates," based on past Court cases, are two to four years.

Internet poll shows Peruvians ready to accept Lori's release

In a two-day Internet write-in poll conducted September 14 and 15 by El Comercio, Perú's largest circulating newspaper (which has always been wrongfully critical of Lori), the respondents overwhelmingly indicated that they would accept an Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling that called for Lori's release. The final results, presented in a summary table and bar chart, will appear on the home page of the Website www.freelori.org. With 31,258 persons voting on-line, 21,037 (that is, 67.3 %) would accept a decision for Lori's release, 5,895 (that is, 18.9 %) would not, and 4,326 (that is, 13.8%) were undecided.

Considering that this newspaper and its Internet readership are thought to be moderately conservative, wealthy, and educated, we are pleased with these results and believe that support for Lori by those in other socio-economic strata would be even higher.

- Rhoda and Mark Berenson