Global Courant 2023-05-21 08:44:30
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican prosecutors announced Saturday night that they are dropping a case against a woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for killing a man when he raped and assaulted her.
In a ruling last week that sparked public outcry, a court in the state of Mexico said while it agreed that 23-year-old Roxana Ruiz had been raped in 2021, she was found guilty of murder involving “excessive use of legitimate defense “. It also ordered Ruiz to pay more than $16,000 in reparations to her attacker’s family.
Feminist groups, who have supported Ruiz’s defense, protested angrily, saying the ruling criminalizes victims of sexual violence while protecting perpetrators in a country with a high rate of gender-based violence and femicides. Protesters in Mexico City carried signs reading “Defending my life is not a crime.”
Ruiz, an Indigenous woman and single mother, told reporters after the court ruling that she had received death threats over the case and was concerned for the safety of her family, particularly the life of her 4-year-old son .
“This isn’t justice,” she said. “Remember I am the one who was sexually assaulted by that man, and after he died because I defended myself…because I didn’t want to die at his hands.”
In response to the outcry, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had said at a morning press briefing that he would try to pardon Ruiz. But her lawyers said accepting a pardon would mean Ruiz has committed a crime and she is completely innocent.
In a press release on Saturday night, the prosecution said it had investigated the case – taking into account that Ruiz is part of a vulnerable group – and found she was “guilt-exempt.” It added that the prosecution believes she acted in self-defense.
The announcement was celebrated by Ruiz’s lawyer Ángel Carrera, though he noted that he had not been formally notified of the charges being dropped.
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“It means they recognize her innocence,” Carrera told The Associated Press. “It’s an admission that she was just defending herself.”
In May 2021, Ruiz sold fries in Nezahualcoyotl, one of 11 municipalities in the state of Mexico, a state that borders Mexico City on three sides and continues to post warnings warning women about femicides and the enforced disappearance of women.
According to the defense, Ruiz was having a drink with a friend and a man she knew in the area. The man offered to walk her home and later asked to stay overnight because it was late and he was far from home. While she was sleeping on a separate bed, the man attacked and raped her.
Ruiz fought back and he threatened to kill her, but in the struggle, Ruiz managed to kill the man in self-defense, Carrera said.
The court said the man was hit in the head and knocked unconscious, saying that was enough for Ruiz to defend himself. Carrera said that claim was “totally false,” and said the assailant had not been determined to have become unconscious.
Carrera said Ruiz panicked and sacked the man’s body and dragged it into the street, where passing police arrested her.
Despite Ruiz telling police she had been raped, a forensic investigation was never done, a critical step in prosecuting sexual assault cases, Carrera said. Instead, an officer replied that she probably wanted to have sex with the man first and then changed her mind, the lawyer said.
According to government data, nearly half of Mexican women have experienced sexual assault in their lifetime.
In 2022, the Mexican government recorded a total of 3,754 women — an average of 10 a day — killed, a significant increase from the previous year. Only a third were investigated as femicide.
Carrera said he hopes the announcement of the case being dropped sets a precedent for other cases of gender-based violence to be more thoroughly investigated and treated with deeper sensitivity.
The Associated Press does not normally identify victims of sexual assault, but Ruiz has given her permission to be identified and is participating in public demonstrations led by activists who support her.
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Associated Press journalist Fernanda Pesce contributed to this report.
