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		</div><p>A young rape victim who was suspected of having an abortion and charged with homicide has been acquitted by a judge at a retrial in a case that has attracted international attention to El Salvador’s strict laws.</p>
<p>Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez, 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.</p>
<p>Prosecutors had asked for a 40-year sentence.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><em>“Thank God, justice was done,”</em> Ms Hernandez said following the announcement of the verdict, visibly emotional as dozens of women waited at the courthouse. <em>“I also thank you who have been present here.”</em></p>
<p><em>“Yes we did!”</em> the women chanted.</p>
<p>Ms Hernandez also thanked foreign diplomats who have followed the case closely.</p>
<p>The Associated Press usually does not name victims of alleged sexual assault, but Ms Hernandez has spoken publicly about her case.</p>
<p>Ms Hernandez’s fetus was at 32 weeks in 2016 when she felt intense abdominal pains and gave birth in an outdoor toilet. The baby was later found lifeless in a septic tank.</p>
<p>Ms Hernandez said she did not know she was pregnant and her mother said she found her passed out next to the toilet.</p>
<p>Both women said they did not know there was a fetus in the tank, but prosecutors did not believe them and pressed charges.</p>
<p>Forensic experts were unable to determine whether it died in the uterus or in the septic tank.</p>
<p>At the retrial, prosecutors’ argument against Ms Hernandez was commission by omission — that is, she failed to protect her fetus.</p>
<p>“We believe the judge has been very fair in his ruling,” defence lawyer Bertha Maria Deleon said. <em>“He has said that there was no way to prove a crime and for that reason he absolved her.”</em></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><em>“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,”</em> said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.</p>
<p>Ms Guevara-Rosas called on El Salvador to cease “criminalising women once and for all by immediately revoking the nation’s draconian anti-abortion laws”.</p>
<p>El Salvador is a deeply religious country with 80% of the population identifying as Catholic or evangelical Christian. It is also home to macho attitudes on women’s role in society, as well as widespread gang violence.</p>
<p><em>“We judge cases based on religious convictions, often for things that should never enter in a courtroom,”</em> defence lawyer Arnau Baulenas said.</p>
<p><em>“We have to stop using justice to respond to social needs. Justice should do its work with criminals, not innocent people.”</em></p>
<p>Every year an estimated 25,000 women are impregnated after rapes in the country of just over six million.</p>
<p>It is believed that thousands of clandestine abortions are carried out each year in El Salvador.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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