She killed a man while he was raping her, and a court in Mexico sentenced her to 6 years in prison.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican girl who killed a man defending herself when he attacked and raped her in 2021 was sentenced to greater than six years in jail, a determination her authorized protection referred to as “discriminatory” and vowed to enchantment Tuesday.
The ruling in opposition to Roxana Ruiz spurred anger from consultants and feminist teams who mentioned it speaks to the depth of gender-based violence and Mexico’s poor file of bringing perpetrators of sexual violence to justice.
“It would be a bad precedent if this sentence were to hold. It’s sending the message to women that, you know what, the law says you can defend yourself, but only to a point,” mentioned Ángel Carrera, her protection lawyer. “He raped you, but you don’t have the right to do anything.”
The Associated 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.
While the Mexico State court discovered Monday that Ruiz had been raped, it mentioned the 23-year-old was responsible of murder with “excessive use of legitimate defense,” including that hitting the man in the pinnacle would have been sufficient to defend herself. Ruiz was additionally ordered to pay greater than $16,000 in reparations to the household of the man who raped her.
In May 2021, Ruiz was working promoting french fries in Nezahualcoyotl, one of many 11 municipalities in the Mexico State with an ongoing gender alert for femicides and one other one for pressured disappearances of girls.
While having a beer with a pal, Ruiz, a Indigenous Mixteca girl and a single mom from the state of Oaxaca, met a man she had seen across the neighborhood. After hanging out, he supplied to stroll her house and later requested to keep the night time as a result of it was late and he was removed from house.
Ruiz agreed to let him sleep on a mattress on the ground. But while she slept he climbed onto her mattress, hit her, tore off her garments and raped her, in accordance to Carrera, Ruiz’s authorized protection. Ruiz fought again and hitting him in the nostril, and he threatened to kill her. In the wrestle to free herself she killed him in self protection, Carrera mentioned.
In a panic, Ruiz put the man’s physique in a bag and dragged it out to the road the place passing police arrested her.
Despite telling police she had been raped, Carrera mentioned a forensic examination was by no means taken, a essential step in prosecuting sexual violence circumstances. Instead, an officer responded that she in all probability needed to have intercourse with the man at first and then modified her thoughts, he mentioned.
“I regret what I did, but if I hadn’t done it I would be dead today,” Ruiz informed the AP in an interview final 12 months, including, “It’s evident that the state wants to shut us up, wants us to be submissive, wants us closed up inside, wants us dead.”
Women’s rights teams have repeatedly accused Mexican authorities of revictimizing survivors and failing to decide circumstances with a gender perspective.
Ruiz spent 9 months in jail on costs of murder with extra of reliable self-defense, and was lastly launched to await trial.
The court 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 man unconscious at one level, saying the court discovered that was “enough to contain the physical aggression.”
The girl’s lawyer mentioned the court’s protection “is totally false.” Carrera mentioned that while there was some proof the attacker acquired a blow to the pinnacle, it was by no means confirmed the man misplaced consciousness. He mentioned the protection hopes to problem the court’s assertion in its enchantment.
Despite the sentencing, Ruiz nonetheless stays free pending additional judicial steps.
Nearly half of Mexican ladies have skilled sexual violence in their lifetime, government data shows.
In 2022, the Mexican authorities registered a complete of 3,754 ladies – a median of 10 a day – who have been deliberately killed, a important bounce from the 12 months earlier than. Only a third have been investigated as femicides.
That quantity is probably going simply a fraction of the true quantity due to rising disappearances and lack of reporting of violence in the nation.
Angelica Ospina, gender fellow for International Crisis Group in Mexico, mentioned she worries that the sentencing might empower victimizers while discouraging ladies from reporting gender-based violence or defend themselves.
The case factors to simply how “normalized” gender-based violence is in Mexico and different elements of Latin America, Ospina mentioned.
“When a woman defends herself, the system is particularly efficient in processing and sentencing her without taking into consideration the conditions in which she killed the man,” Ospina mentioned.
Meanwhile, outdoors the courtroom, ladies carried indicators and chanted “justice!” A tearful Ruiz stood earlier than the gang, thanking feminist teams and the ladies who had supported her by way of the years-long judicial course of.
Speaking to the gang, she considered her 4-year-old son.
“My son, I hope to see him again. I hope to stay with him, to be the one who watches him grow up,” Ruiz mentioned.