Ten retired soldiers were sentenced to up to 12 years in jail by a Peruvian court on Wednesday for sexually assaulting nine rural women and girls during the 1980s while the army was battling Maoist militants from the Shining Path.
Five years of proceedings in the first case involving sexual offenses perpetrated by soldiers in the South American nation came to a conclusion with the sentencing. These men had previously been found guilty in previous proceedings.
None of the men appeared in court when Judge Rene Eduardo Martinez sentenced them to six to twelve years in prison.
The case began in Huancavelica, one of the poorest districts of Peru, in 1984 when the army established a camp close to the Andean towns of Manta and Vilca.
According to their attorneys, five of the victims became pregnant as a result of the rape because many of them were teenagers at the time of the incident.
“These have been 40 long years of struggle,” a victim identified only as Maria said in a voice message sent by her lawyer to AFP.
Maria, now 54, has two children that were the product of rape.
“Hopefully … these criminals will now go to prison,” she said.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Peru claims that hundreds of incidents of forced abortions, prostitution, rape, and sexual slavery occurred during the 1980–2000 conflict between Shining Path rebels and government forces in the nation.
According to the committee, violations occurred on both sides of Peru’s internal conflict, resulting in almost 69,000 deaths or disappearances.
