Outrage as court sentences woman to jail for killing her rapist, activists protest injustice
A non-governmental organization defending women’s rights in Mexico, Nos Queremos Vivas (We Want to Stay Alive), has condemned a court judgment that sentenced a woman to six years and two months in jail for killing her rapist.
The woman, Roxana Ruiz, who strangled her rapist to death with a T-shirt in May 2021, received the prison sentence for defending herself.
The State of Mexico court convicted Ruiz of “excessive use of self-defense” after she strangled the man who broke into her home, threatened her, and raped her.
According to Mirror, while acknowledging that she was a rape victim, the court believed that “a blow to the head” would have been sufficient to defend the 23-year-old.
Two years ago, the mother of one was arrested after she was seen attempting to drag a bag containing the dismembered body parts of her attacker.
Her terrifying ordeal began when she encountered the man stranded on the street and offered him a place to stay.
The court heard how she woke up in the middle of the night and found the man in her bed, raping her. She struck him in the face, causing a nosebleed while he was momentarily distracted. Seizing the opportunity, she grabbed a T-shirt and used it to strangle him to death.
“I feel sad and disappointed in the justice system. If I hadn’t defended myself, I would be dead,” Ruiz told the media outside the court in the municipality of Nezahualcóyotl—one of the most dangerous places to be a woman in Mexico.
Nezahualcóyotl is the second municipality in the State of Mexico with the highest number of femicides, intentional homicides of women, and the third in disappearances, according to the National Citizen Observatory of Feminicide and RNPED [National Registry of Data on Missing Persons].
Ruiz, who expressed concern for her own safety and the future of her five-year-old son, stated, “I feel a tightness in my chest because I don’t want to go back to jail,” last year in an interview with El País Newspaper.
Nos Queremos Vivas (We Want to Stay Alive), a Mexican organization campaigning against male violence, strongly condemned the verdict and sparked protests.
The NGO stated, “No woman should be imprisoned for defending lives that the state fails to protect. Denying Roxana Ruiz and hundreds of poor women their freedom does not improve their lives; on the contrary, it perpetuates the existence of structural and cultural violence.”
Ruiz’s lawyer informed reporters that they would appeal the verdict, which also included an order for her to pay damages and compensation of 286,000 pesos (£13,000) to the man’s family.
Government statistics reveal that 3,755 women were murdered in Mexico last year.
