Section:GDN 1N PaGe:4 Edition Date:190821 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 20/8/2019 20:48 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Wednesday 21 Au g u st 2019
(^4) News
El Salvador rape victim cleared
of baby’s murder after retrial
Epstein’s estate sued by three
more women claiming abuse
Nina Lakhani
A young rape survivor accused of
deliberately inducing an abortion in
El Salvador after delivering a still-
born baby in a toilet has been cleared
of murder during a retrial.
Evelyn Beatríz Hernández Cruz , 21,
was acquitted after a judge ruled there
was insuffi cient evidence to convict.
Prosecutors had asked for a 40-year
Martin Pengelly and agencies
Three more women sued the estate of
Jeff rey Epstein yesterday, saying they
were sexually abused by the fi nancier
both before and after the deal that
allowed him to avoid federal prose-
cution for sex crimes in 2007.
The new lawsuits, fi led in New York ,
bring the number of civil cases against
Epstein’s estate since his death in jail
on 10 August to at least fi ve.
Epstein was arrested on 6 July and
pleaded not guilty to charges of sex
traffi cking involving dozens of girls
sentence for aggravated homicide, but
Hernández has always maintained her
innocence, insisting she did not real-
i se the rape had left her pregnant, and
lost consciousness during the birth.
“Thank God, justice was served,”
said Hernández outside the court-
house, surrounded by jubilant
supporters, after the verdict was
handed down. “I thank all of you who
have supported me and thank every-
one from around the world who has
shown support.”
as young as 14. He died in his cell at
the Metropolitan Correctional Center
in New York, aged 66. A postmortem
report concluded he hanged himself.
It emerged late on Monday that two
days before his death, Epstein signed a
will placing his property, worth more
than $577m (£474m), in a trust.
Prosecutors have moved to dis-
miss the criminal indictment against
Epstein but they have said they are
considering charging others with facil-
itating his alleged abuse.
Speculation continues to surround
the whereabouts of Ghislaine Max-
well , a British socialite who was closely
connected to Epstein. On Monday the
Erika Guevara-Rosas , Americas
director at Amnesty International,
described the verdict as a “resound-
ing victory for the rights of women in
El Salvador ”.
Abortion has been outlawed in all
circumstances in El Salvador since
- Since then, dozens of women
have been prosecuted for murder after
suff ering an obstetric emergency such
as miscarriage or still birth, and given
sentences of between 30 and 40 years.
Hernández was raped in 2015, when
Daily Mail reported that a picture of
Maxwell in Los Angeles published last
week may have been staged. Maxwell,
who denies wrongdoing, is believed to
be in Massachusetts.
On Monday Brad Edwards, a lawyer
for Epstein accuser Virginia Giuff re,
who claims she was made to have sex
with Prince Andrew, told the Guard-
ian: “I look forward to coordinating
a formal deposition where [Andrew]
will be given the opportunity to tell
us everything he knows. ” Andrew has
strenuously denied having a sexual
relationship with Giuff re, and a court
threw out that claim when it was aired
in a case against Epstein.
In a statement on Sunday , Buck-
ingham Palace said Andrew was
“appalled by the recent reports of Jef-
frey Epstein’s alleged crimes”.
Several attorneys vowed to go
after Epstein’s assets even if the willshe was a 17-year-old college student.
She suff ered the stillbirth in April 2016
when she was 18, and was remanded
in custody three days later.
The medical coroner recorded
aspiration pneumonia as the cause of
death, having discovered meconium- faecal matter – in the baby’s lungs
and stomach. Despite the medical
evidence pointing to complications
at birth, she was convicted of aggra-
vated homicide and sentenced to 30
years in July 2017.
Hernández was freed in February
2019, after serving 33 months, when
an appeal court judge quashed the
conviction on the grounds that the
evidence used to convict her failed
to prove she had deliberately harmed
the baby.
Nevertheless, prosecutors decided
includes named benefi ciaries. “Give
his entire estate to his victims,” said
one of those lawyers, Lisa Bloom. “It
is the only justice they can get. And
they deserve it. ”
Two of the women who fi led suits
yesterday say they met Epstein when
they were 17. The third said she met
him when she was 20. All describe
being brought to Epstein’s home to
provide massages and then beingto pursue a retrial and longer jail term
based on the same tenuous evidence.
“The prosecution was never based on
objective evidence ... it was about the
institutional systematic criminali sa-
tion of poor women,” said Bertha María
Deleón, one of Hernández’s lawyers.
The Hernández case is the fi rst since
President Nayib Bukele took offi ce in
June, and will test his commitment
to tackle the miscarriages of justice
enabled by the country’s draconian
abortion laws and misogynistic justice
system. Bukele, the country’s young-
est ever president, has yet to comment
on the verdict, but has previously
said that while he is anti-abortion, no
woman should be jailed after suff er-
ing an obstetric emergency.
Monday’s ruling is the second
important victory in eight months for
lawyers and campaigners. In Decem-
ber 2018, Imelda Cortez , 20, charged
with attempted murder after giving
birth to her abusive step father’s baby,
was freed after an international cam-
paign highlighted her plight.
“We are creating judicial prec-
edents,” said Paula Avila Guillen ,
director of Latin America initiatives at
the New York-based Women’s Equality
Centre. “This is down to smart litiga-
tion and mobili sing the media to focus
the eyes of the world on El Salvador,
which has forced judges to pay closer
attention to the actual evidence rather
than relying on prejudice and stigma
surrounding poor women.”
In the last decade, 41 women
have been freed as a result of dogged
campaigning by domestic and interna-
tional human rights groups, including
six in 2018. At least 16 other women are
serving up to 35 years in jail, with four
more facing trial.
“It was tough to be locked up, espe-
cially when I was innocent,” added a
tearful Hernández on Monday. “There
are others who are still locked up and
I hope they are freed soon.”subjected to repeated, unwanted sex
acts. All said the abuse continued after
Epstein reached the deal with federal
prosecutors in Florida in 2007 that
allowed him to plead guilty to state
prostitution charges and spend 13
months in a county jail, which he was
allowed to leave during the day.
Two of the women said Epstein
continued to abuse them during work
release. Lawyers for Epstein did not
immediately comment.
Epstein’s non-prosecution agree-
ment has been widely critici sed. As
part of the deal, he made fi nancial set-
tlements with dozens of his victims.
It is unclear how those settlements
might aff ect claims made on his estate.
The f ormer federal prosecutor
David S Weinstein told the Associ-
ated Press that states and US territories
have certain time frames within which
to make a claim against an estate.▲ There is speculation concerning
Ghislaine Maxwell’s whereabouts‘Thank God, justice
was served. I thank
all of you ... everyone
from around the
world who has shown
support’Evelyn Hernández
Rape survivor▼ Evelyn Hernández , centre,
embraces supporters after being
acquitted of agg ravated homicide
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