June 30, 2001, 22:30
Vladimiro Montesinos, Peruvian ex-spy was on hunger strike today in protest at his detention in a maximum-security jail built for leftist rebels, and refused to talks to anti-corruption judges appointed to his case.
Gino Costa, the prison chief, confirmed that Peru's feared Montesinos, captured a week ago in Venezuela after eight months on the run, was refusing to eat prison food.
Costa noted, however, that the disgraced secret services chief appeared to be consuming "biscuits, food he brought in with him, and some drinks".
He said that Montesinos' stay at Callao penitentiary would be only temporary: for a four to six-month period, while a high-security holding cell was prepared for him at a Lima prison. The Callao naval base prison in western Peru was set up in 1992, at Montesinos' own suggestion, to house Peru's most notorious criminals.
The prison chief said Montesinos' rights would not be affected by his detention at a military prison and that he would be given a medical check every day with a lawyer as witness.
Montesinos' wife Trinidad Becerra announced the hunger strike yesterday. "He won't stop his (hunger) strike until they take him out of that military prison," into jails belonging to the state penitentiary system, Becerra said. - Sapa-AFP
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