MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican woman who strangled a man to death while defending herself when he attacked & raped her in 2021 was sentenced to more than 6 years in prison.
The ruling against Roxana Ruiz spurred anger from experts & feminist groups who said it speaks to the depth of gender-based violence & Mexico’s poor record of bringing perpetrators of sexual violence to justice.
While the Mexico State court found Monday that Ruiz had been raped, it said the 23-year-old was guilty of homicide with “excessive use of legitimate defense,” adding that hitting the man in the head would have been enough to defend herself. Ruiz was also ordered to pay more than $16,000 in reparations to the family of the man who raped her.
In May 2021, Ruiz was working selling french fries in Nezahualcoyotl, one of the 11 municipalities in the Mexico State with an ongoing gender alert for femicides & another one for forced disappearances of women.
While having a beer with a friend, Ruiz, a Indigenous Mixteca woman & a single mother from the state of Oaxaca, met a man she had seen around the neighborhood. After hanging out, he offered to walk her home & later asked to stay the night because it was late & he was far from home.
Ruiz agreed to let him sleep on a mattress on the floor. But while she slept he climbed onto her bed, hit her, tore off her clothes & raped her, according to Ruiz’s legal defense. Ruiz fought back, hitting him in the nose.
He threatened to kill her & in the struggle that followed, Ruiz grabbed a T-shirt & used it to strangle her attacker.
In a panic, Ruiz put the man’s body in a bag & dragged it out to the street where passing police arrested her.
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