Raped, miscarried, arrested: Inside El Salvador’s ‘outrageous’ state-sponsored persecution of vulnerable women
The IndependentSign up for the Independent Women email for the latest news, opinion and features Get the Independent Women email for free Get the Independent Women email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Guillen, who is also a director at the Women’s Equality Centre, says this case is even more “outrageous” than similar instances in El Salvador. “She was already sentenced one time then appealed, and then she was released … but still the prosecutors took her to retrial; that just shows a level of malice to really use all the weight of the state to charge these women.” In cases such as Hernandez’s the state is the prosecutor, bringing women to trial for their supposed crimes. David Pressman, executive director of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, said: “When charges are brought without evidence, it raises concerns about a state’s compliance with international standards … and, in some cases, it can suggest an ulterior motive for the charging decision.” In the majority of cases the state investigates, the women go straight from the hospital to the jailhouse, even if they are haemorrhaging. “There’s no doubt this case set a precedent, it has also provided us with jurisprudence for future cases to be known and to strengthen the defence arguments against judgments of women already convicted,” Deras says.