American in Peru facing long sentence

A state prosecutor in Peru is to seek a twenty-year prison sentence for an American woman, Lori Berenson, who's being held in Lima on terrorism charges.

It's expected her trial will begin early next month.

Miss Berenson is accused of collaborating with rebels of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement MRTA in a plot to blow up the Peruvian congress -- charges she denies.

Last August, Miss Berenson's original life sentence was overturned by a military court and a new trial ordered in the civilian courts.

Figures such as the American civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson, have joined calls for her release, saying she cannot get a fair trial in Peru.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service