The young woman sentenced to 30 years acquitted for an alleged abortion in El Salvador

• Central America: A young woman from El Salvador can be sentenced to 40 years in jail for suffering an out-of-hospital birth

A court in El Salvador has acquitted Evelyn Hernández, 21, of the crime of aggravated homicide committed on allegedly aborting in 2016 and asking for 40 years in jail, a spokesman for an organization that provided legal support to the woman.

The young woman, whose pregnancy was the result of a rape, faced a new trial after the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) annulled in July 2018 a ruling of July 2017, when she was sentenced to 30 years in prison by the aggravated homicide offense.

Judge José Virgilio Jurado Martínez, of the Court of Judgment of Cojutepeque, presided over the new trial against the young woman that was held between Thursday and last Friday.

Attorney Bertha de León explained to the press that the judge "has said that there was no way to prove the crime and that is why he acquitted it; and has said that it was a complicated childbirth, like that of many of the women who are still imprisoned for the crime of homicide. "

On the other hand, Hernández, who was very excited, said that now his goals are to continue studying and "get ahead".

"Thank God justice was done. All this time was hard because they accused me of something I was innocent ... I hope that many girls (women convicted of abortion) leave soon (from jail)," said the young.

The Attorney General's Office (FGR), whose representatives did not make statements to journalists, accused the aggravated homicide girl in the form of commission by omission, for which she requested a sentence of 40 jail.

The Salvadoran was imprisoned 33 months and in February of this year she obtained probation.

Hernández suffered an outpatient delivery on April 6, 2016 when they were in their home and then was transferred by a relative to the National Hospital of the municipality of Cojutepeque (east), where she was reported to the authorities by the doctor who attended her, as they pointed out His lawyers.

Evelyn's case crossed Salvadoran borders and various international human rights organizations and in favor of the decriminalization of abortion repeatedly asked the Prosecutor's Office of the Central American country to withdraw the accusation against the young woman.

In El Salvador, women who suffer pregnancy complications that result in spontaneous abortions and stillbirths are usually suspected of having had an abortion, prohibited in all circumstances and typified as aggravated homicide, whose jail term is 30 years.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project