LIMA, Nov. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- The Peruvian government started on Friday retrial of Abimael Guzman, the leader of the rebel group Shining Path.

    Guzman, 69, and 17 other members of the rebel group will also be on trial, according to justice authorities.

    Guzman, who masterminded a bloody insurgency in 1980, was captured in 1992 and sentenced by a secret military tribunal to life imprisonment without parole.

    The verdict, however, was annulled in 2002 by the Constitutional Tribunal on the grounds that the legal proceedings were flawed.

    The new trial takes place in the El Callao Naval Base, 14 km west of Lima. A massive security operation involving 600 police officers has been in place. Enditem