Sarah Rochelle has been jailed for nine years for allegedly having an abortion when she had an accident at the age of 20. 30 to 50 years in prison
The Sarah Rochel , a Salvadoran who was sentenced to serve 30 years in prison because of elimination that the court described homicide intentionally with aggravating circumstances, finally released on Monday after a court decided to release her early conditional noted journalist of the French Press Agency.
Dressed in white, Ms. Rochelle, 29, was released from a women’s prison on the outskirts of Sakatekulka , 56 kilometers southeast of San Salvador.
She was awaited by family members and Carla Vacherano , a lawyer with the Citizens’ Organization for the Decriminalization of Abortion in El Salvador (ACDATEE), who supported her.
The lawyer went to jail to serve the verdict of the court that ordered the release of her client. After hours of waiting, Ms. Rochelle was finally let go, after saying goodbye to her captives.
On Friday, the attorney general’s office announced that it would not appeal the court’s decision in late May to release him on parole.
“She was deprived of her liberty for almost nine years because of a sentence that we believe was unjustly imposed on her,” said lawyer Vacherano .
The events that led to her imprisonment unfolded in 2012.
Mrs. Rochelle, then a student, twenty years old, eight months pregnant, fell while doing work in the yard of her house in Santa Cruz Analcito, 44 km east of San Salvador, according to ACDATEE.
Her family found her unconscious and took her to a hospital in the town of Kochutepeke, where she was suspected of having an abortion . He was immediately remanded in custody.
Court sentenced for murder with aggravating circumstances by imposing a 30 years imprisonment, but finally, after several appeals of ACDATEE to justice, the sentence was reduced to ten years imprisonment, to be complemented in October 2022.
In El Salvador, a very conservative Catholic country, legislation banning abortion is among the strictest on the planet – no exceptions are provided for rape, incest, or even pregnancy that endangers the life of the expectant mother.
The penal code stipulates imprisonment for 2 to 8 years in abortion cases ; however, prosecutors and judges often even refer to involuntary expulsions as “premeditated homicide with aggravating circumstances”, a charge that carries a sentence of 30 to 50 years in prison.
