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American citizen Lori Berenson is presented to the press after being captured
American citizen Lori Berenson is presented to the press after being captured. On November 30, 1995, she was detained along with Panamanian citizen Pacífico Castrillón in downtown Lima. Both had rented a house in the district of La Molina that was being used as an MRTA refuge where the "takeover" of Congress was being planned. A faceless military judge of the Consejo Supremo de Justicia Militar sentenced her, at first instance, to life imprisonment for the crime of "treason." The U.S. State Department protested the sentence in 1996. On June 20, 2002, following a ruling by the Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH), a new trial was held in civilian court, after which Lori Berenson was sentenced to 20 years in prison.