‘Resounding victory for rights of women’ after retrial overturns conviction of Evelyn Beatriz Hernández.

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El Salvador woman acquitted of stillbirth murder charge.

El Salvador woman Evelyn Hernández cleared of homicide over stillborn baby’s death - video
▼ A young rape survivor accused of deliberately inducing an abortion in El Salvadorafter delivering a stillborn baby in a toilet has been cleared of murder during a retrial.
Evelyn Beatríz Hernández Cruz, 21, was acquitted on Monday after a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict.
Prosecutors had asked for a 40-year prison sentence for aggravated homicide, but Hernández has always maintained her innocence, insisting that she did not realise the rape had left her pregnant, and lost consciousness during the birth.
“Thank God, justice was served,” said Hernández outside the courthouse, surrounded by jubilant supporters, after the verdict was handed down. “I thank all of you who have supported me and thank everyone from around the world who has shown support.”
Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americasdirector at Amnesty International, described the verdict as a “resounding victory for the rights of women in El Salvador”.
“We call on El Salvador to end the shameful and discriminatory practice of criminalising women once and for all by immediately revoking the nation’s draconian anti-abortion laws,” she said.
Abortion has been outlawed in all circumstances in El Salvador since 1998. Since then, dozens of women have been prosecuted for murder after suffering an obstetric emergency such as miscarriage or stillbirth, and given sentences of between 30 and 40 years.

Women in El Salvador hold placards that read: ‘Freedom, justice and reparation’ and ‘Justice for Evelyn’. Photograph: José Cabezas/Reuters
Hernández was raped in 2015, when she was an 17-year-old college student. She was remanded in custody in April 2016, three days after suffering the stillbirth.
The medical coroner recorded aspiration pneumonia as the cause of death, having discovered meconium – faecal matter – in the baby’s lungs and stomach. Despite the medical evidence pointing to complications at birth, she was convicted of aggravated homicide and sentenced to 30 years in July 2017.
Hernández was freed in February 2019, after serving  (▪ ▪ ▪)

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