Marie Haydée Beltrán Torres

Marie Haydée Beltrán Torres
Nationality	Puerto Rican

Marie Haydée Beltrán Torres (born June 7, 1955) is a Puerto Rican nationalist who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the 1977 bombing of the Mobil Oil Building in Manhattan that killed one person and injured several others. Torres was linked to the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN), which claimed responsibility for the Mobil Oil bombing and numerous others.^[1] Supporters of Torres consider her a political prisoner.

She was released on April 14, 2009.^[2]

Trial

At her trial, Torres refused the appointment of counsel, demanded to represent herself and then informed the district court that she would neither present a defense nor participate in the proceedings. Declaring her status as a prisoner of war, she stated that the court proceedings were "illegal" and that she had "committed no crime", and demanded that her case be tried before an international court.

She was refused her request and instead given a trial in which she had no legal representation, and was subsequently charged with "seditious conspiracy" (or attempting to overthrow the U.S government), and sentenced to life in prison.

On August 1997, The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied her appeal to vacate her sentence. Torres claimed she was denied her constitutional rights under the Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments.

Imprisonment

Torres was one of the first subject of an experimental prison unit in Alderson, West Virginia.^[3] The High Security Unit (HSU) was a kind of prison within a prison, occupying a completely isolated Unit of the Federal Correctional Institute.^[4] Allegations were made that the unit was an experimental underground political prison that practiced isolation and sensory deprivation. It was finally closed by a federal judge after two years of protest by religious and human rights groups.^[5]

The ProLIBERTAD organization said that Torres has been denied adequate medical attention. It is alleged that she was left sterile after prison officials refused treatment for an inflammation of the pelvis for five years, ignoring episodes of drastic weight loss and severe pains in her pelvis which did not permit her to stand up.^[6]

See also

• Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña

References and primary source

1. ^ Mrs. Torres Gets Life Term For Fatal Bombing in 1977, The New York Times, May 24, 1980
2. ^ Federal Bureaus of Prisons Inmate Locator
3. ^ Day, Susie. "Cruel But Not Unusual: The Punishment of Women in U.S. Prisons, An Interview with Marilyn Buck and Laura Whitehorn", Monthly Review, August 2001. Accessed 19 October 2008.
4. ^ Reuben, William A.; Norman, Carlos. "Brainwashing in America? The women of Lexington Prison". The Nation, 1987. Accessed 19 October 2008.
5. ^ "Judge Bars U.S. From Isolating Prisoners for Political Beliefs". The New York Times, 1988. Accessed 19 October 2008.
6. ^ ProLIBERTAD Campaign For The Freedom Of Puerto Rican Political Prisoners And Prisoners Of War. Accessed 19 October 2008.

• Marie Haydee Beltran Torres vs. United States of America (complete text) Retrieved on 2008-11-19

Persondata
Name	Beltran Torres
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 7, 1955
Place of birth	Puerto Rico
Date of death
Place of death