LIMA : Last Appeal

Abimael Guzman, guiding light of Peru’s Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrillas, is expected to lose his final appeal this week against a life sentence imposed by a military court. The Supreme Council of Military Justice will issue its decision by Wednesday.

Guzman, 57, was convicted on charges of treason for leading the Maoist rebel movement in a war of terrorism since 1980. Police captured him in a Lima safehouse last month, and a military judge sentenced him and two of his deputies last week after a secret trial at an island navy base off the coast of Lima. Guzman’s lawyer said the nature of the charges against Guzman was never explained to him.