Peruvians add years to a prisoner’s life

Press, 28 August 1984, Page 13

Peruvians add years to a prisoner’s life

From

VANESSA BAIRD

in Lima, Peru

Prisoners being held in Peruvian jails on drug offences have fallen victim to a Supreme Court ruling that has added years to the time they must serve. Peter Duffy, a 45-year-old Londoner, had expected to be enjoying the English summer now. Instead he, and eight other British prisoners, are on a hunger strike at Lurigancho prison on the outskirts of Lima, and facing another six years behind bars. What has happened is something they had hardly imagined possible. The Supreme Court has come up with a ruling that makes a new law removing privileges from prisoners on drugs and terrorismrelated offences retro-active. It means that all the prison labour done by inmates in this category over the years, in exchange for a reduction in the time they must serve, and “third remission” for good behaviour, has been scrapped. Ten years for drugs now means just that, and in nightmarish conditions. Moreover, British prisoners, unlike Americans and Canadians, cannot get transferred to serve their sentences in their own countries. The British Ptgliament has

yet to pass a law making this possible. One prisoner at El Sexto, the Lima jail where 22 people were killed last April in a bloody mutiny that involved torturing hostages and burning them alive in front of the television cameras, commented: “When things get bad, this place is worse than anything out of ‘Midnight Express’.” However, the drug prisoners have one glimmer of hope. The Supreme Court ruling appears to be unconstitutional. Clauses 186 and 187 of the Peruvian Constitution state quite clearly that no law can be applied retro-actively, unless it is to the benefit of the prisoner. The Justice Ministry holds this view. There are now moves to get a Bill through Congress stating that the law can be applied only from November 6, 1983, when it was passed, and so annulling the Supreme Court’s decision. However, it could take months to get the law through the complexities of the Peruvian legislative

system. Success is not assured. The Government and the judiciary have in the last few months taken an increasingly hard line on drug-trafficking and terrorism, seeing the two as linked evils aimed at undermining the establishment. Meanwhile the prisoners, many of whom had to wait up to three years in jail before coming to trial, are pessimistic about the Bill. This clash of opinion between the judiciary and the executive could take months, if not years, to resolve, says Peter Duffy, who spent three years waiting and a total of 100 hours in court before getting a sentence. Since the ruling was published at the end of last month there have been violent outbreaks at various prisons. In the jungle prison at louitos, inmates this month set fire to some of the buildings. Conditions at the over-crowded jails are not getting better. El Sexto, which was built for 600, now accommodates over 1700. One-third of the prisoners have no bed. Life in jail is too. Prisoners

have to buy everything from food and a bed to a light-bulb. Some also have to pay out protection money. “Gringo prisoners are just money trees to them,” says another British prisoner, Alan Simmonds. “If you put down the book you are reading, someone nicks it and you have to buy it back.” Then there are the “vanishing” lawyers. One Briton paid $21,000 to a lawyer to get his case started. He never saw him again, and nothing was done. Even release papers take months and can cost thousands of dollars to procure. Alan Simmonds has already spent 56500 for these documents alone and they still lack one vital signature. Some prisoners can never leave, although their sentences are completed, because they or their families cannot afford the necessary bribes. The British Embassy does little to help its nationals in prison, beyond supplying them with a list of selected lawyers, but the United States Embassy provides American prisoners with diet supplements, daily vitamin pills, and bank account facilities. Copyright — London Observer Service. >