An Interview With Lori Berenson

Lori Berenson, a young American woman, has been held in a brutal foreign prison for five years. While her plight has garnered international headlines, until now, the American public has not heard her speak. For the first time since her arrest five years ago, the 30-year-old New York City native spoke exclusively to CBS News' 48 Hours.

"I am not a terrorist by any means; quite the contrary: I do not believe in any act of terrorism," Berenson told CBS News Correspondent Peter Van Sant from a maximum-security prison last week in Peru. The complete interview will be broadcast on 48 Hours, Oct. 19 at 8 p.m..

Berenson described the atrocious conditions under which she has been jailed. She said she was often in solitary confinement and was not allowed to speak to anyone for almost two years. What's more, Berenson was kept in a special prison for terrorists, located high in the Andes Mountains, where the altitude took its toll. She talked about the deterioration of her health and problems with her hands. "They are discolored, they're swelling, and they bleed," she told Van Sant.

Berenson was 26 years old when she was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 by a military tribunal on charges that she plotted with Marxist rebels to attack the Peruvian Congress. She was brought before a hooded judge after her arrest, she told Van Sant, and said that "behind each chair, rifles were pointed at our heads."

During the minutes-long trial, neither she nor her attorney knew what she was being charged with, and Berenson said, she was not allowed to make a statement on her behalf. But in a surprise move last month, the government overturned the conviction because officials believed she was not a leader of the terrorist group, but a member. Berenson will be tried again in civil court.

Thousands have been killed in Peru as the Fujimori government has battled terrorist groups, like the Marxist MRTA, to which Berenson has been linked. According to Peru's minister of justice, the MRTA is responsible for no less than 3,000 murders. Berenson told 48 Hours, "To murder innocent people, I'm not saying that is correct. But what I'm saying in the general context: Trying to change one's life is not necessarily wrong."

Berenson said she was working as a journalist, reporting on poverty in Peru. Police said MRTA members were planning an armed takeover of the Peruvian Congress in the home in which she lived. Police also said they found an arsenal of weapons in the house.

Berenson's parents, Rhoda and Mark, have put their lives on hold as they fight for their daughter's release from prison. They say that Lori is innocent and that her first trial was unfair because she was denied due process. Rhoda Berenson just published a book about her family's ordeal and what she says is false evidence against their daughter titled Lori, My Daughter, Wrongfull Imprisoned in Peru.