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MEXICO CITY — A Mexican girl who killed a person defending herself when he attacked and raped her in 2021 was sentenced to greater than six years in jail, a choice her authorized protection known as “discriminatory” and vowed to attraction Tuesday.
The ruling towards Roxana Ruiz spurred anger from specialists and feminist teams who stated it speaks to the depth of gender-based violence and Mexico’s poor file of bringing perpetrators of sexual violence to justice.
“It will be a foul precedent if this sentence had been to carry. It’s sending the message to ladies that, what, the regulation says you may defend your self, however solely to some extent,” stated Ángel Carrera, her protection lawyer. “He raped you, however you don’t have the suitable to do something.”
The Related Press doesn’t usually establish sexual assault victims, however Ruiz has given her permission to be recognized and participates in public demonstrations led by activists who assist her.
Whereas the Mexico State courtroom discovered Monday that Ruiz had been raped, it stated the 23-year-old was responsible of murder with “extreme use of professional protection,” including that hitting the person within the head would have been sufficient to defend herself. Ruiz was additionally ordered to pay greater than $16,000 in reparations to the household of the person who raped her.
In Could 2021, Ruiz was working promoting french fries in Nezahualcoyotl, one of many 11 municipalities within the Mexico State with an ongoing gender alert for femicides and one other one for compelled disappearances of ladies.
Whereas having a beer with a good friend, Ruiz, a Indigenous Mixteca girl and a single mom from the state of Oaxaca, met a person she had seen across the neighborhood. After hanging out, he supplied to stroll her dwelling and later requested to remain the night time as a result of it was late and he was removed from dwelling.
Ruiz agreed to let him sleep on a mattress on the ground. However whereas she slept he climbed onto her mattress, hit her, tore off her garments and raped her, in line with Carrera, Ruiz’s authorized protection. Ruiz fought again and hitting him within the nostril, and he threatened to kill her. Within the wrestle to free herself she killed him in self protection, Carrera stated.
In a panic, Ruiz put the person’s physique in a bag and dragged it out to the road the place passing police arrested her.
Regardless of telling police she had been raped, Carrera stated a forensic examination was by no means taken, a vital step in prosecuting sexual violence instances. As a substitute, an officer responded that she in all probability needed to have intercourse with the person at first after which modified her thoughts, he stated.
“I remorse what I did, but when I hadn’t executed it I’d be useless in the present day,” Ruiz advised the AP in an interview final 12 months, including, “It’s evident that the state desires to close us up, desires us to be submissive, desires us closed up inside, desires us useless.”
Girls’s rights teams have repeatedly accused Mexican authorities of revictimizing survivors and failing to guage instances with a gender perspective.
Ruiz spent 9 months in jail on fees of murder with extra of professional self-defense, and was lastly launched to await trial.
The courtroom responded to public outcry of the sentencing Wednesday, saying the decide did study the case with a gender perspective. It additionally famous {that a} blow to the pinnacle through the wrestle left the person unconscious at one level, saying the courtroom discovered that was “sufficient to comprise the bodily aggression.”
The girl’s lawyer stated the courtroom’s protection “is completely false.” Carrera stated that whereas there was some proof the attacker acquired a blow to the pinnacle, it was by no means confirmed the person misplaced consciousness. He stated the protection hopes to problem the courtroom’s assertion in its attraction.
Regardless of the sentencing, Ruiz nonetheless stays free pending additional judicial steps.
Almost half of Mexican ladies have skilled sexual violence of their lifetime, authorities information exhibits.
In 2022, the Mexican authorities registered a complete of three,754 ladies – a mean of 10 a day – who had been deliberately killed, a major leap from the 12 months earlier than. Solely a 3rd had been investigated as femicides.
That quantity is probably going only a fraction of the true quantity because of rising disappearances and lack of reporting of violence within the nation.
Angelica Ospina, gender fellow for Worldwide Disaster Group in Mexico, stated she worries that the sentencing might empower victimizers whereas discouraging ladies from reporting gender-based violence or defend themselves.
The case factors to only how “normalized” gender-based violence is in Mexico and different elements of Latin America, Ospina stated.
“When a girl defends herself, the system is especially environment friendly in processing and sentencing her with out taking into account the circumstances during which she killed the person,” Ospina stated.
In the meantime, outdoors the courtroom, ladies carried indicators and chanted “justice!” A tearful Ruiz stood earlier than the group, thanking feminist teams and the ladies who had supported her via the years-long judicial course of.
Chatting with the group, she considered her 4-year-old son.
“My son, I hope to see him once more. I hope to stick with him, to be the one who watches him develop up,” Ruiz stated.
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