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El Salvador: Woman faces retrial after baby died in toilet birth El Salvador: Woman faces retrial after baby died in toilet birth
(about 5 hours later)
A woman in El Salvador has pleaded not guilty at her retrial to charges of aggravated homicide after her baby died when she gave birth in a toilet. A woman in El Salvador whose baby was found dead in the toilet where she gave birth is facing a retrial on charges of homicide.
She has said the baby was stillborn, but prosecutors say it was an abortion. Evelyn Beatríz Hernández Cruz, 21, was originally sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2017 but was released following an appeal.
El Salvador has some of the world's strictest anti-abortion laws. She says she did not know she was pregnant and lost consciousness during the birth.
Evelyn Beatríz Hernández Cruz, 21, had served nearly three years of a 30-year sentence when she was released in February. Initially accused of abortion, she was eventually found guilty of homicide.
Following an appeal, a court ordered she be retried, but granted she could live at home during the process. Abortion is illegal in El Salvador and those found guilty face between two and eight years in jail.
Prosecutors claim she is guilty because she did not seek maternity care, but she maintains that she never knew she was pregnant. 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.
"What Evelyn is living is the nightmare of many women in El Salvador," her lawyer Elizabeth Deras told the Associated Press. What happened?
"Thank God I'm fine, I'm innocent... I trust God and my lawyers a lot," Ms Hernández told the Efe news agency outside court. Evelyn Hernández says she experienced severe stomach pains and bleeding while at her home in rural El Salvador on 6 April 2016.
Dozens of supporters held a protest outside the court near the capital, San Salvador, calling for a change in the legislation. 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.
This is the first retrial of an abortion case in El Salvador. She was arrested after the body of her baby was found in the toilet's septic tank.
The country outlaws abortion in all circumstances, and dozens of women have been imprisoned for the deaths of their foetuses in cases where they said they had suffered miscarriages or stillbirths. 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.
There are hopes among human rights groups that the new government of President Nayib Bukele, who took office in June, could usher in a more lenient stance on the issue. 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.
The case so far "If I'd known I was pregnant I would have awaited [the birth] with pride and joy," she has said in the past.
In April 2016, Ms Hernández gave birth at home in a rural area of the Central American country. She lost consciousness after losing large amounts of blood. 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.
Her mother told the BBC that police arrived at a hospital while her daughter was receiving treatment. What were the charges?
Although she was in the third trimester, Ms Hernández insisted she would have sought medical treatment had she known she was pregnant. Ms Hernández was charged with aggravated homicide in 2017.
In her first trial, she told the court she had been repeatedly raped. Her lawyers said she was too frightened to report the rapes, and some reports said the man who raped her was a gang member. Prosecutors said that she had hidden her pregnancy and not sought antenatal care and while they said they could not establish whether the baby was alive at birth, they argued that Ms Hernández had committed murder.
Medical experts could not ascertain whether the foetus had died in her womb or just after being born. The judge ruled that Ms Hernández knew she was pregnant and found her guilty of aggravated homicide. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison in July 2017.
Ms Hernández said she had confused the symptoms of pregnancy with stomach ache because she had experienced intermittent bleeding, which she thought was her menstrual period. Why is there a retrial?
However, the judge decided Ms Hernández knew she was pregnant. Ms Hernández lawyers appealed against the judge's decision.
After almost three years, in February she was granted a re-trial with a new judge. The defence lawyers said that forensic test 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.
Rights organisations in El Salvador says there are still at least twenty other women in jail under the country's strict abortion laws. In the last decade, campaigners have managed to free around 30 through evidence reviews and retrials. The lawyers said that 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.
However, her conviction was confirmed by another court in October 2017 so her lawyers took their appeal to the country's supreme court.
In February 2019, the 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.
What is the latest?
Ms Hernández's lawyers say prosecutors on Monday changed the charges levelled against her from aggravated homicide to manslaughter.
Going into the trial on Monday, Ms Hernández said she was innocent and that she had trust "in God and my lawyers".
Why is the case significant?
Rights organisations in El Salvador says there are still at least 20 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. A retrial verdict in Ms Hernández's favour would give those still in jail hope their convictions could also be overturned.
The retrial comes just six weeks after new President Nayib Bukele took office and women's groups are hoping he could usher in a more lenient stance on the issue.