By Elliott Gotkine BBC News, Lima

Guzman faces a civilian trial for the first time

Mr Guzman faces terrorism charges for masterminding a leftwing insurgency which led to the deaths of almost 70,000 people and cost Peru billions of dollars in damage.

The date of the retrial had been set weeks ago.

The special, bullet-proof protected courtroom had been completed with time to spare, and the world's media had descended on the Callao naval base, just west of Lima, for what could prove one of the most important trials in the country's history.

But one should never overestimate the abilities of Peru's judiciary.

For an hour hordes of local and foreign cameramen, photographers and newspaper journalists stood outside the grim, grey building.

One by one we were finally allowed through the steel doors.

There would just be a few minutes for filming and photographs. People with any sort of recording equipment would then be asked to leave, for security reasons.

Maoist reunion

But things didn't quite go according to plan.

For a start, the trial didn't get going until almost 1025, almost a full hour after it was supposed to.

Transporting some of Mr Guzman's followers from their provincial prisons had apparently proved tricky.

ABIMAEL GUZMAN Formed Shining Path movement in the 1970s Launched insurgency in rural areas in 1980 70,000 killed in terror and counter-terror campaigns Arrested and judged by military panel in 1992 Life sentence overturned by constitutional court in 2003

When they did finally enter the courtroom, they shuffled in one by one.

The last of the 16 to arrive was Abimael Guzman, known to his supporters as "President Gonzalo".

With his grey hair neatly cut and combed backwards and wearing tinted, thick-rimmed glasses, Mr Guzman looked like the philosophy professor he once was.

After embracing one of his comrades, the 69-year-old rebel leader shook his right fist briefly, yet defiantly, and took his seat alongside his longtime lover and co-accused, Elena Iparraguirre.

Mr Guzman sat in the first of two rows now occupied by more than a dozen Maoist guerrillas. It looked like a class reunion photograph.

Ban defied

The scene was in marked contrast to the caged, wild-haired and wild-eyed individual paraded before the world's media 12 years ago, soon after Mr Guzman's sensational capture.

The government of the day reportedly considered shooting him.

But in the end Mr Guzman was tried behind closed doors by a panel of hooded military judges.

He was found guilty of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment, without parole.

Guzman recently went on hunger strike in prison

But last year, Peru's highest court declared the country's anti-terror laws illegal, paving the way for the retrial of the Shining Path leader.

Ironically, this time the media were the caged ones. We were crammed into an airless room behind the bullet-proof glass. Almost all of us had to stand.

After establishing who was to be defended by whom, the presiding judge caved in to media pressure, and said he would allow the cameras to remain "so that people could see justice in action".

Unfortunately many Peruvian journalists are about as respectful as a bunch of hungry hyenas who have just stumbled upon a dead zebra.

Some were broadcasting the proceedings live on radio, despite mobile phones supposedly being banned.

Farcical end

Before long, the judge decided to kick out the cameras. Taking his cue, Mr Guzman rose to his feet.

With his right fist clenched and raised high in the air, he began to rant.

"Long live Peru's Communist Party!" he shouted, as his followers joined in.

"Glory to Marxism, Leninism and Maoism! Long live the heroes of the people! Long live the Peruvian people!"

Guzman and Iparraguirre chanted pro-Communist slogans in the courtroom

The media erupted into a frenzy of flashbulbs.

The judge, clearly unimpressed, suspended the hearing. And all of the accused were led back to their cells.

It was a farcical end to the first day of what will be several trials for Abimael Guzman. The proceedings are expected to drag on for months (without cameras present, one can only assume).

According to his lawyer, Mr Guzman is unlikely to co-operate with the hearings, in protest at what he sees as their illegality.

Either way, no-one in Peru - not even the ageing rebel leader himself - expects the country's courts to free him.

But there are fears that the Peruvian state is unprepared to go up against the Shining Path leader in court.

Fears also abound that Mr Guzman could appeal against any eventual guilty verdict to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the hope of winning his liberty by arguing that Peru's definition of terrorism is flawed.