The Mexican authorities determined that Ruiz acted in legitimate self-defense, so with this resolution, he was declared free.
If the party representing the aggressor does not file an appeal within this period, the sentence may come into force in three days.
In a statement released on Saturday, the FGJEM said, “It was determined that the conduct committed by the convicted woman during the events of which she was accused is exempt from criminal responsibility, as the prosecutor’s office believes he acted in lawful defence.”
The announcement was made as various groups of women demonstrated in Mexico City this Friday demanding that the six years and two months sentence against Roxana Ruiz for the murder of her sexual attacker be overturned.
What did Roxana Ruiz do?
In May 2021, Roxana Ruiz worked selling french fries in Nezahualcoyotl, one of 11 municipalities in the State of Mexico, with the current gender warning for women and another warning for forced disappearances of women.
After she went out for drinks with a friend and an acquaintance in the neighborhood, he offered to drive her home, asking her to stay the night later because it was late and he lived far away.
while she slept on the other bed, Man attacked and raped her in defense of Ruiz, Ruiz defended herself and she threatened to kill him. In the struggle, Ruiz killed the man in self-defense, said Angel Carrera, the young woman’s attorney.
The court argued that since the man had been hit on the head and was unconscious, he was sufficient to defend himself, but Carrera denied that was true.
panic overcome, Ruiz placed the man’s body in a bag and dragged it down the street Where the passing police stopped him.
Despite telling police that she was raped, Carrera said she was never given a forensic examination, which is an important step in the prosecution of sexual violence cases. Instead, an agent replied that she probably wanted to have sex with the man at first and then changed her mind, he said.
Nearly half of Mexican women have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime, according to government data. In 2022, the Mexican government recorded a total of 3,754 murders – an average of 10 per day – a significant jump from the previous year. Only about a third of those murders were investigated as murders of women.
