SALON

Tuesday, Mar 6, 2012 2:27 AM UTC

Lawyer Cites Plot Against Brother Of Peru’s Prez

By

Topics: From the Wires,

LIMA, Peru (AP) — The imprisoned brother of Peru’s president was transferred from a high-security prison to a military lockup after intelligence reports indicated jailed rebels might be planning to take him hostage, his lawyer said Monday.

Cashiered army Maj. Antauro Humala is serving a 19-year sentence for manslaughter for leading an attack by 100 army reservists on a highlands police station on New Year’s 2005 in a failed attempt to trigger an uprising. Four police officers and two reservists were killed.

Humala’s weekend transfer from Piedras Gordas prison to the military base lockup in the Lima district of Chorrillos drew complaints from many Peruvians of preferential treatment.

But Humala’s lawyer, Rosario Montero, said he had physically been at risk. She said prison authorities had learned of plans by Shining Path rebels to riot and take the brother of President Ollanta Humala hostage.

Montero told RPP radio the plan was to “negotiate freedom for many Shining Path leaders.”

Justice Minister Juan Jimenez said it wasn’t just Antauro Humala but also relatives who were at risk.

“The person who visits Mr. Humala most is his mother, so we need to guarantee her security,” he told reporters.

Montero denied that the prison at the military academy in Chorrillos to which Antauro Humala was transferred was “a golden prison.”

She said it was “a small cell, where he has a bed, a desk, where he can continue writing.”

Antauro Humala’s failed revolt had sought the resignation of then-President Alejandro Toledo.

Initially sentenced to 25 years in prison, Antauro Humala had his murder sentence reduced by the Supreme Court in September from murder.

President Humala rose to the rank of army lieutenant colonel and military attache in South Korea before being retired, just prior to the Andahuaylas uprising, over his perceived disloyalty to Toledo.

More Carla Salazar.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations