LIMA, Peru (AP) – The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has upheld the 20-year-sentence of Lori Berenson, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology dropout convicted in Peru for terrorist collaboration with Marxist guerrillas, President Alejandro Toledo said Thursday.

Berenson’s legal team, led by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, had argued that her trial in Peru failed to meet international standards for fairness, and that she faced hostile judges who relied on coerced testimony and tainted evidence.

Peru is bound as a member of the Costa Rica-based court to follow its ruling and a decision to release Berenson could have had explosive repercussions.

“It is undoubtedly a great satisfaction and tranquility for Peruvian justice and all Peruvians,” Toledo told Radioprogramas radio when asked about the ruling.

He said the Costa Rica-based court had “ratified the sentence and I once again salute the court members.”

The court will not officially notify the two sides of its decision until Friday, court spokesman Arturo Monge said in Costa Rica. “The court cannot control what people outside the court say,” he said in response to Toledo’s comments.

Jose Luis Sandoval, Berenson’s lawyer in Peru, told The Associated Press that he also had not received notification from the court on Thursday.

But Berenson, in a telephone interview from prison, confirmed the ruling went against her.

“Yeah, it’s true, but I’m not allowed to talk to the press,” Berenson told an Associated Press reporter who reached her by phone at Huacariz penitentiary in Cajamarca, 350 miles north of the capital, Lima. “I cannot give you any statements. I’m sorry.”

Phone calls to Berenson’s family in New York City were not answered Thursday.

Berenson, 35, a New York native, has spent nine years in Peruvian prisons. Her scheduled release date is in 2015, just after her 46th birthday.

Berenson denies any wrongdoing and maintains she is a political prisoner whose concern for social justice was distorted by authorities to look like a terrorist agenda.

She appealed to the Inter-American court as a last resort after military and civilian trials in Peru ended in convictions. The civilian court conviction was upheld by the country’s supreme court.

Berenson was arrested in November 1995 on charges of being a leader of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and plotting a thwarted attack on Peru’s Congress.