B4-0216/95

Resolution on the arrest of Maria Gabriella Guarino

The European Parliament,

A.whereas Maria Gabriella Guarino, an Italian citizen, was arrested on 8 March 1994 during an anti-terrorist operation conducted by the Peruvian police in Trujillo in northern Peru, where she lived with her daughter (11 months) and her partner Juan Leon Montero, a member of the MRTA (Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru),

B.whereas on her return to Italy after previous visits to Peru, Gabriella Guarino published various articles on the situation in Peru and in 1992 produced a video on MRTA activities in the Peruvian jungle,

C.whereas on the basis, among other things, of statements by an informer, the police have charged her with membership of the MRTA and of collaborating actively with terrorism,

D.whereas, after seven months in pre-trial detention in the Sante Monica de Chorrillos maximum security prison in Lima, three trial hearings were held in camera with 'faceless' judges - hidden behind a screen and with disguised voices - and at the end of the third hearing on 17 November 1994 she was sentenced to 20 years in prison and a $25 000 fine,

E.whereas Gabriella Guarino has never committed acts of terrorism and has never approved of the political practices and methods of armed guerilla warfare, as letters found at the informer's home prove,

F.whereas the conditions under which Gabriella Guarino is being held are extremely harsh, she has been forbidden to have in her cell letters from her relatives or a photograph of her baby daughter and she has even been denied drinking water, except for a daily ration of 1/4 of a litre,

G.whereas an appeal was lodged immediately with the supreme court,

H.whereas Amnesty International has recently recognized Gabriella Guarino as a prisoner of conscience and called for her immediate release,

1.Calls for the physical and psychological conditions under which Gabriella Guarino is being held to be made more humane, in particular by permitting her to read and write;

2.Hopes that when the appeal is heard the supreme court will acquit her or at least drastically reduce her sentence;

3.Calls, therefore, on President Fujimori of Peru to intervene on humanitarian grounds by granting a pardon or deporting her;

4.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Italian Government, President Fujimori of Peru and Mr Fantoja, President of the Supreme Court.