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Peru court gives ex-rebel leader life sentence for car bomb

Sep 11, 2018 | 5:00 PM

LIMA, Peru — A Peruvian court convicted and gave a second life sentence to imprisoned Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman on Tuesday for a 1992 car bombing in the capital that killed 25 people and injured 155.

The 83-year-old Guzman is already serving a life sentence for a 1983 massacre in an Andean village. The Maoist-inspired group began its fight against Peru’s government in 1980 but was badly weakened by the 1992 capture of Guzman and many of its other leaders.

In their ruling Tuesday, the judges sided with prosecutors’ claims that Guzman masterminded the deadly car bombing in a middle-class Lima neighbourhood.

The attack was part of a wave of car bombings in Lima that came as the Shining Path focused its attacks on Peru’s capital.

Guzman’s defence had argued that he nothing to do with the attack.

A truth commission found that between 1980 and 2000 fighting among rebel groups, the government and self-defence patrols left up 70,000 dead.

The Associated Press