E/CN.4/1999/63/Add.2 page 29 shot her, but she didn’t die. Afterwards, she identified me as the driver. DINCOTE tortured me and broke two of my ribs.” This person was sentenced to life imprisonment. 157. “They arrested me along with the woman I worked for as a domestic servant. They took me to Lima and tried me with two other people I did not know. I was accused of taking care of 'reds', but I did not know who they were, as I was only doing what my employer told me to do. I was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment by the civilian court and my employer was given a life sentence by the military court.” 158. When Shining Path attacked the town of Victoria in December 1993, it made Mirtha Sobrado Correa the local leader “because she was the youngest”. She did not have the slightest chance of resisting. She was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for collaborating with terrorists. There are many similar stories and thousands of victims. 159. The Government has been considering a number of solutions since 1994 including a communication to Amnesty International by a committee of jurists; one by the Ministry of Justice to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1994/51); and the adoption of the Repentance Act, focusing on peasants who were abducted and forced to commit terrorist acts. 160. An “Ad Hoc Committee” was established by Act No. 26.655 of 17 August 1996 to make proposals to the Government in exceptional cases on pardons for persons convicted of terrorist-related offences on the basis of insufficient evidence of ties with terrorist organizations (art. 1). It can also recommend that persons on trial in similar circumstances should be pardoned (art. 2). The Committee is composed of the Ombudsman, a representative of the President of the Republic (a respected priest) and the Minister of Justice. It can recommend the review of cases in which there is some “doubt” about the facts. The Committee began its work on 20 August 1996 for an initial term of 180 days, which was extended until December 1998. International concern about the matter is evidenced by the large contribution made to the Committee (30 per cent). 161. Up to the time when the Working Group visited Peru, the Committee had received 2,541 applications for reprieve or pardon and had recommended that 362 of them should be granted. The President granted 360: 316 persons serving prison sentences and 44 awaiting trial. By the end of August 1998, the number had reached 438. A Committee of Solidarity, composed of the Ombudsman and NGOs, is responsible for the rehabilitation of persons who have been reprieved or pardoned. 162. According to the Committee and the Working Group, the 360 persons pardoned were subject to arbitrary detention within the meaning of category III of the Group’s methods of work. 163. Ninety-five per cent of the persons pardoned had been tried by civilian courts and 5 per cent by military courts. The President of the Supreme Council of Military Justice (CSJM) maintains that military justice and its monitoring system to avoid injustice are almost infallible. He claims that

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