Evelyn Hernandez, 21, smiles in court after being acquitted on charges of aggravated homicide in her retrial related to the loss of a pregnancy in 2016, in Ciudad Delgado on the outskirts of San Salvador, El Salvador, Monday, Aug. 19, 2019. Hernandez, who has said she did not realize she was pregnant as the result of a rape when she gave birth into a latrine at 32 weeks, was originally sentenced to 30 years under El Salvador’s strict abortion laws. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

CIUDAD HIDALGO, El Salvador (AP) — A court in El Salvador has acquitted at retrial a young rape victim who was suspected of having an abortion and charged with homicide.

The case of Evelyn Beatriz Hernández has attracted international attention to the country’s strict abortion laws and prosecutors’ aggressive pursuit of legal cases against women who have miscarriages or other obstetric emergencies.

Hernández’s fetus was at 32 weeks when she felt intense abdominal pains and delivered it into a primitive toilet. She has said she didn’t know she was pregnant.

After the verdict was announced Monday, she said “justice was done.” The Associated Press usually does not name victims of alleged sexual assault, but Hernández has spoken publicly about her case.

She served 33 months of a 30-year prison sentence before her conviction was overturned. </s> CIUDAD HIDALGO, El Salvador — A court in El Salvador has acquitted at retrial a young rape victim who was suspected of having an abortion and charged with homicide.

The case of Evelyn Beatriz Hernández has attracted international attention to the country's strict abortion laws and prosecutors' aggressive pursuit of legal cases against women who have miscarriages or other obstetric emergencies.

Hernández's fetus was at 32 weeks when she felt intense abdominal pains and delivered it into a primitive toilet. She has said she didn't know she was pregnant.

After the verdict was announced Monday, she said "justice was done." The Associated Press usually does not name victims of alleged sexual assault, but Hernández has spoken publicly about her case.

She served 33 months of a 30-year prison sentence before her conviction was overturned. </s> A 21-year-old woman in El Salvador whose baby was found dead in the toilet where she gave birth has been cleared during a retrial.

Evelyn Hernández had always maintained she was innocent, saying that she did not know she was pregnant and lost consciousness during the birth.

Prosecutors had asked for a prison sentence of 40 years.

Her case has been closely watched in El Salvador and abroad with women's rights activists demanding she be acquitted.

El Salvador has one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the world. Abortion is illegal in all circumstances and those found guilty face between two and eight years in jail.

But in many cases, including the one against Ms Hernández, the charge is changed to one of aggravated homicide, which carries a minimum sentence of 30 years.
• The mothers being criminalised in El Salvador
• Where women may be jailed for miscarrying

Ms Hernández's case was the first of its kind in El Salvador in which a full retrial had been ordered.

Previously, women accused of aborting their babies have had their sentences commuted after their 30-year jail terms were deemed "disproportionate and immoral" but their verdicts were not overturned.

Women's rights activists hope Ms Hernández's retrial will set a precedent for other women jailed under El Salvador's strict anti-abortion laws to fight their sentences.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has in the past called on El Salvador to reform its "draconian" abortion laws.

Evelyn Hernández says she experienced severe stomach pains and bleeding while at her home in rural El Salvador on 6 April 2016.

She went to the toilet, located in an outhouse, where she fainted. Her mother took her to a hospital, where doctors found she had given birth.

She was arrested after the body of her baby was found in the toilet's septic tank.

Ms Hernández, who was 18 at the time, says she had been raped by a gang member but that she had no idea that she was pregnant.

She said she had confused the symptoms of pregnancy with stomach ache because she had experienced intermittent bleeding, which she thought was her menstrual period.

"If I'd known I was pregnant I would have awaited [the birth] with pride and joy," she said in the past.

She also said that while she had "felt something come loose" inside her, she did not hear a baby cry out and did not realise she was giving birth.

She was initially accused of abortion but the charge was changed to one of aggravated homicide with prosecutors arguing she had hidden her pregnancy and not sought antenatal care.

In July 2017, the judge ruled that Ms Hernández knew she was pregnant and found her guilty. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison of which she has already served 33 months.

Why was there a retrial?

Ms Hernández' lawyers appealed against the judge's decision. They said forensic tests showed that the baby had died of meconium aspiration, inhaling his own early stool. This can happen while the baby is still in the uterus, during delivery or immediately after birth.

The lawyers said the test proved that Ms Hernández had not tried to abort the baby but that it had died of natural causes. "There is no crime," defence lawyer Bertha María Deleón said.

In February 2019, El Salvador's supreme court annulled the 2017 conviction citing absence of evidence and ordered a retrial with a new judge.

Ms Hernández was released from jail pending the retrial, which started in July.

Prosecutors in the retrial asked for an even harsher sentence - 40 years in prison - than that originally imposed.

Salvadorean pro-choice campaigner Morena Herrera said the prosecutors' demand for such a steep sentence was "extremely grave". She accused them of not taking into consideration the circumstances in which the birth took place and the severe blood loss Ms Hernández suffered.

Why is the case significant?

Rights organisations in El Salvador say there are at least 17 other women in jail under the country's strict abortion laws.

Over the last decade, campaigners have managed to free around 30 through evidence reviews.

Ms Hernández's retrial is the first such case to be heard under new President Nayib Bukele, who took office in June, and women's groups are hoping he could usher in a more lenient stance on the issue.

President Bukele has said that he opposes abortion but has expressed sympathy with women suffering miscarriages who then come under suspicion.

"If a poor woman suffers a miscarriage, she's immediately suspected of having had an abortion. That's where the issue of social inequality comes into play," he said while he was running for president. </s> CIUDAD HIDALGO, El Salvador (AP) - A young rape victim who was suspected of having an abortion and charged with homicide was acquitted by a judge at a retrial Monday in a case that attracted international attention to El Salvador's strict abortion laws.

Evelyn Beatriz Hernández, now 21, had served 33 months of a 30-year prison sentence when her conviction was overturned in February for lack of evidence and a new trial was ordered. Prosecutors had asked for a 40-year sentence.

The retrial was a first for such a case in the Central American nation, where prosecutors aggressively pursue legal cases against women who have miscarriages or other obstetric emergencies, accusing them of murder.

"Thank God, justice was done," Hernández said following the announcement of the verdict, visibly emotional as dozens of women waited at the courthouse. "I also thank you who have been present here."

"Yes we did!" the women chanted.

Hernández also thanked foreign diplomats who have followed the case closely. The Associated Press usually does not name victims of alleged sexual assault, but Hernández has spoken publicly about her case.

Evelyn Hernandez, 21, smiles in court after being acquitted on charges of aggravated homicide in her retrial related to the loss of a pregnancy in 2016, in Ciudad Delgado on the outskirts of San Salvador, El Salvador, Monday, Aug. 19, 2019. Hernandez, who has said she did not realize she was pregnant as the result of a rape when she gave birth into a latrine at 32 weeks, was originally sentenced to 30 years under El Salvador's strict abortion laws. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Hernández's fetus was at 32 weeks in 2016 when she felt intense abdominal pains and delivered it into an outdoor toilet, and it was later found lifeless in a septic tank. Her mother said she found her passed out next to the latrine, and Hernández said she didn't know she was pregnant.

Both women said they didn't know there was a fetus in the tank, but prosecutors didn't believe them and pressed charges. Forensic experts were unable to determine whether it died in the uterus or in the septic tank.

"We believe the judge has been very fair in his ruling," defense lawyer Bertha María Deleón said. "He has said that there was no way to prove a crime and for that reason he absolved her."

El Salvador is one of three Central American nations with total bans on abortion.

"This is a resounding victory for the rights of women in El Salvador. It reaffirms that no woman should be wrongly accused of homicide for the simple fact of suffering an obstetric emergency," said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

Guevara-Rosas called on El Salvador to cease "criminalizing women once and for all by immediately revoking the nation's draconian anti-abortion laws."

Evelyn Hernandez, left, 21, is hugged by her defense attorney Bertha Deleon after being acquitted on charges of aggravated homicide in her retrial related to the loss of a pregnancy in 2016, outside the court in Ciudad Delgado on the outskirts of San Salvador, El Salvador, Monday, Aug. 19, 2019. Hernandez, who has said she did not realize she was pregnant as the result of a rape when she gave birth into a latrine at 32 weeks, was originally sentenced to 30 years under El Salvador's strict abortion laws. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez) </s> Salvadoran suspected of having abortion acquitted at retrial

CIUDAD HIDALGO, El Salvador (AP) — A young rape victim who was suspected of having an abortion and charged with homicide was acquitted by a judge at a retrial Monday in a case that attracted international attention to El Salvador's strict abortion laws.

Evelyn Beatriz Hernández, now 21, had served 33 months of a 30-year prison sentence when her conviction was overturned in February for lack of evidence and a new trial was ordered. Prosecutors had asked for a 40-year sentence.

The retrial was a first for such a case in the Central American nation, where prosecutors aggressively pursue legal cases against women who have miscarriages or other obstetric emergencies, accusing them of murder.

"Thank God, justice was done," Hernández said following the announcement of the verdict, visibly emotional as dozens of women waited at the courthouse. "I also thank you who have been present here."

"Yes we did!" the women chanted.

Hernández also thanked foreign diplomats who have followed the case closely. The Associated Press usually does not name victims of alleged sexual assault, but Hernández has spoken publicly about her case.

Hernández's fetus was at 32 weeks in 2016 when she felt intense abdominal pains and delivered it into an outdoor toilet, and it was later found lifeless in a septic tank. Her mother said she found her passed out next to the latrine, and Hernández said she didn't know she was pregnant.

Both women said they didn't know there was a fetus in the tank, but prosecutors didn't believe them and pressed charges. Forensic experts were unable to determine whether it died in the uterus or in the septic tank.

"We believe the judge has been very fair in his ruling," defense lawyer Bertha María Deleón said. "He has said that there was no way to prove a crime and for that reason he absolved her."

El Salvador is one of three Central American nations with total bans on abortion.

"This is a resounding victory for the rights of women in El Salvador. It reaffirms that no woman should be wrongly accused of homicide for the simple fact of suffering an obstetric emergency," said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

Guevara-Rosas called on El Salvador to cease "criminalizing women once and for all by immediately revoking the nation's draconian anti-abortion laws." </s> El Salvador Woman Who Lost Her Pregnancy Is Acquitted Of Homicide In Retrial

A young woman from El Salvador who was convicted of aggravated homicide after she lost her pregnancy has been acquitted during a retrial.

El Salvador has one of the strictest abortion laws in the world – it's not allowed under any circumstances.

Evelyn Beatriz Hernández, 21, has said she was raped by a gang member and didn't know she was pregnant. In 2016, she gave birth into a toilet, and her mother found her passed out next to it.

At the hospital, doctors told her that she'd given birth, according to the BBC. "She was arrested after the body of her baby was found in the toilet's septic tank," the broadcaster reported. It's not clear whether it was stillborn died in the septic tank. Forensic experts could not make a determination, according to The Associated Press.

Hernández was convicted of aggregated murder and a judge sentenced her to 30 years in prison in 2017. Earlier this year, the country's Supreme Court ordered a retrial, saying the first verdict "was based on prejudice and insufficient evidence," according to Reuters.

She was acquitted on Monday. "Thank God, justice was done," Hernández tearfully told a crowd outside the court, the news service reported. "There are many women who are still locked up and I call for them to be freed soon, too."

Amnesty International said that in El Salvador, "at least 19 women remain in jail or continue to face charges in these circumstances."

"This is a resounding victory for the rights of women in El Salvador," said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty's Americas director. "It reaffirms that no woman should be wrongly accused of homicide for the simple fact of suffering an obstetric emergency."

Hernández has said that "if I'd known I was pregnant I would have awaited [the birth] with pride and joy," the BBC notes.

Many women obtain abortions in El Salvador despite the restrictive laws. A report from the Center for Reproductive Rights estimates that nearly 250,000 happened between 1995 and 2000 – "with 11.1% of them resulting in the death of the pregnant woman."

CPR said a Salvadoran organization, Agrupación Ciudadana para la Despenalización del Aborto Terapéutico, Ético y Eugenésico, analyzed data about women prosecuted for abortion-related crimes. "The women most affected by El Salvador's criminalization of abortion are young women from a lower socioeconomic class," the organization concluded.

Like in Hernández's case, many of the women who have been prosecuted were accused by health workers providing them medical care. </s> Evelyn Hernandez, 21, smiles in court after being acquitted on charges of aggravated homicide in her retrial related to the loss of a pregnancy in 2016, in Ciudad Delgado on the outskirts of San Salvador, El Salvador, Monday, Aug. 19, 2019. Hernandez, who has said she did not realize she was pregnant as the result of a rape when she gave birth into a latrine at 32 weeks, was originally sentenced to 30 years under El Salvador’s strict abortion laws. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

CIUDAD DELGADO, El Salvador (AP) — A young rape victim who was suspected of having an abortion and charged with homicide was acquitted by a judge at a retrial Monday in a case that attracted international attention to El Salvador’s strict abortion laws.

Evelyn Beatriz Hernández, now 21, had served 33 months of a 30-year prison sentence when her conviction was overturned in February for lack of evidence and a new trial was ordered. Prosecutors had asked for a 40-year sentence.

The retrial was a first for such a case in the Central American nation, where prosecutors aggressively pursue legal cases against women who have miscarriages or other obstetric emergencies, accusing them of murder.

“Thank God, justice was done,” Hernández said following the announcement of the verdict, visibly emotional as dozens of women waited at the courthouse. “I also thank you who have been present here.”

Hernández also thanked foreign diplomats who have followed the case closely. The Associated Press usually does not name victims of alleged sexual assault, but Hernández has spoken publicly about her case.

Hernández’s fetus was at 32 weeks in 2016 when she felt intense abdominal pains and delivered it into an outdoor toilet, and it was later found lifeless in a septic tank. Her mother said she found her passed out next to the latrine, and Hernández said she didn’t know she was pregnant.

Both women said they didn’t know there was a fetus in the tank, but prosecutors didn’t believe them and pressed charges. Forensic experts were unable to determine whether it died in the uterus or in the septic tank.

At the retrial, prosecutors’ argument against Hernández was commission by omission — that is, she failed to protect her fetus.

“We believe the judge has been very fair in his ruling,” defense lawyer Bertha María Deleón said. “He has said that there was no way to prove a crime and for that reason he absolved her.”

El Salvador is one of three Central American nations with total bans on abortion. Women convicted of having abortions face sentences of two to eight years.

But women who turn up at public hospitals following a miscarriage are sometimes accused of having killed the fetus and charged with aggravated homicide, which carries a sentence of 30 to 40 years. Such punishments often fall on poor, young women and victims of rape.

“This is a resounding victory for the rights of women in El Salvador. It reaffirms that no woman should be wrongly accused of homicide for the simple fact of suffering an obstetric emergency,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

Guevara-Rosas called on El Salvador to cease “criminalizing women once and for all by immediately revoking the nation’s draconian anti-abortion laws.”

El Salvador is a deeply religious country with 80% of the population identifying as Catholic or evangelical Christian. It’s also home to macho attitudes on women’s role in society, as well as widespread gang violence.

“We judge cases based on religious convictions, often for things that should never enter in a courtroom,” defense lawyer Arnau Baulenas said.

“We have to stop using justice to respond to social needs,” Baulenas added. “Justice should do its work with criminals, not innocent people.”

Every year an estimated 25,000 women are impregnated after rapes in the country of just over 6 million. It is believed that thousands of clandestine abortions are carried out each year in El Salvador.

Recent polls have shown broad support for more lenient abortion laws, though many in the country believe rape victims should be made to carry pregnancies to term.

Hernández’s case was seen as a test for women’s reproductive rights under new President Nayib Bukele, who has said he believes abortion is acceptable only when the mother’s life is at risk but that he opposes criminalizing women who have miscarriages.

“If a poor woman has a miscarriage, she’s immediately suspected of having had an abortion,” Bukele said in 2018. “We can’t assume guilt when what a woman needs is immediate assistance.” </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Evelyn Hernández thanked her mother after being cleared

A 21-year-old woman in El Salvador whose baby was found dead in the toilet where she gave birth has been cleared of murder during a retrial.

Evelyn Hernández had always maintained she was innocent, saying that she did not know she was pregnant and lost consciousness during the birth.

Prosecutors had asked for a prison sentence of 40 years.

Her case has been closely watched in El Salvador and abroad with women's rights activists calling for her acquittal.

El Salvador has one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the world. Abortion is illegal in all circumstances and those found guilty face between two and eight years in jail.

But in many cases, including the one against Ms Hernández, the charge is changed to one of aggravated homicide, which carries a minimum sentence of 30 years.

"Thank God, justice has been done," she said as she stood on the steps outside the court house, free after 33 "hard" months behind bars. "My future is to continue studying and to move forward with my goals. I am happy," she said, according to AFP news agency.

"I am about to explode with happiness," her defence lawyer, Bertha Maria Deleon, tweeted.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Evelyn Hernández spoke to the BBC last year

However, she added, the fight was not over: Ms Hernández's case was the first of its kind in El Salvador in which a full retrial had been ordered.

Previously, women accused of aborting their babies had had their sentences commuted after their 30-year jail terms were deemed "disproportionate and immoral", but their verdicts were not overturned.

Now women's rights activists hope the retrial will set a precedent allowing other women jailed under El Salvador's strict anti-abortion laws to fight their sentences.

"We can and we will continue fighting because there are still women accused who need justice urgently," Ms Deleon tweeted.

Amnesty International described the verdict as a "resounding victory for the rights of women in El Salvador" and called on the government to "end the shameful and discriminatory practice of criminalising women".

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has in the past also called on El Salvador to reform its abortion laws.

What happened?

Evelyn Hernández said she experienced severe stomach pains and bleeding while at her home in rural El Salvador on 6 April 2016.

She went to the toilet, located in an outhouse, where she fainted. Her mother took her to a hospital, where doctors found she had given birth.

She was arrested after the body of her baby was found in the toilet's septic tank.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Ms Hernández had repeatedly said she was innocent

Ms Hernández, who was 18 at the time, said she had been raped by a gang member but that she had no idea that she was pregnant.

She said she had confused the symptoms of pregnancy with stomach ache because she had experienced intermittent bleeding, which she thought was her menstrual period.

"If I'd known I was pregnant I would have awaited [the birth] with pride and joy," she said in the past.

She also said that while she had "felt something come loose" inside her, she did not hear a baby cry out and did not realise she was giving birth.

She was initially accused of abortion but the charge was changed to one of aggravated homicide with prosecutors arguing she had hidden her pregnancy and not sought antenatal care.

In July 2017, the judge ruled that Ms Hernández knew she was pregnant and found her guilty. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison of which she has already served 33 months.

Why was there a retrial?

Ms Hernández's lawyers appealed against the judge's decision. They said forensic tests showed that the baby had died of meconium aspiration, inhaling his own early stool. This can happen while the baby is still in the uterus, during delivery or immediately after birth.

The lawyers said the test proved that Ms Hernández had not tried to abort the baby but that it had died of natural causes. "There is no crime," defence lawyer Bertha María Deleón said.

Image copyright AFP Image caption A protester holding a sign saying "Evelyn you're not alone! We're with you" outside the court

In February 2019, El Salvador's supreme court annulled the 2017 conviction citing absence of evidence and ordered a retrial with a new judge.

Ms Hernández was released from jail pending the retrial, which started in July.

Prosecutors in the retrial asked for an even harsher sentence - 40 years in prison - than that originally imposed.

Salvadorean pro-choice campaigner Morena Herrera said the prosecutors' demand for such a steep sentence was "extremely grave". She accused them of not taking into consideration the circumstances in which the birth took place and the severe blood loss Ms Hernández suffered.

Why is the case significant?

Rights organisations in El Salvador say there are at least 17 other women in jail under the country's strict abortion laws.

Over the last decade, campaigners have managed to free around 30 through evidence reviews.

Ms Hernández's retrial is the first such case to be heard under new President Nayib Bukele, who took office in June, and women's groups are hoping he could usher in a more lenient stance on the issue.

President Bukele has said that he opposes abortion but has expressed sympathy with women suffering miscarriages who then come under suspicion.

"If a poor woman suffers a miscarriage, she's immediately suspected of having had an abortion. That's where the issue of social inequality comes into play," he said while he was running for president. </s> A young woman from El Salvador who was suspected of having an abortion has been cleared of murder during a retrial.

Cheers of support greeted a suspected rape victim Evelyn Hernández when a Salvadoran judge acquitted her after having a stillborn child in April 2016.

The 21-year-old had already served 33 months of a 30-year prison sentence when her conviction was overturned in February for lack of evidence and a new trial was ordered.

Hernandez was raped by a gang member and said she was unaware of her pregnancy until just shortly before she gave birth.

The case has attracted international attention to El Salvador’s strict abortion laws.

"It was hard to be inside (prison) all that time, knowing I was accused of something I was innocent of, and I also ask for all those young women still inside, that they be released soon, " said Evelyn Beatriz Hernández, on receiving the verdict.

The retrial was a first for such a case in the Central American nation, where prosecutors have aggressively pursued legal cases against women who have had miscarriages or other obstetric emergencies, accusing them of murder.

"We cannot allow this to continue happening," said activist, Morena Herrera.

"We have to change the law, we have to change the enforcement of the law, and we have to obtain the freedom of the 16 women who are still in jail."

El Salvador has one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the world. Abortion is illegal in all circumstances.

Some 147 Salvadoran women have been sentenced to up to 40 years in prison in such cases between 2000 and 2014, according to the Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion, a local rights group.
Evelyn Hernández is acquitted of murder after her newly-born child was found deceased in a toilet. The ruling is being held as a landmark case decision for women's rights in El Salvador, which has one of the strongest anti-abortion laws in Central America.