A Mexican woman who killed a man in 2021 while defending herself against his assault and rape called the sentence “discriminatory” and vowed to appeal. Her legal team called the decision “discriminatory.”

Experts and feminist organisations expressed their outrage at the verdict against Roxana Ruiz, saying it illustrates the extent of gender-based violence and Mexico’s dismal track record of prosecuting those who commit sexual assault.

“It would be a bad precedent if this sentence were to hold. It’s sending the message to women that, you know what, the law says you can defend yourself, but only to a point,” said Angel Carrera, her defence lawyer.

“He raped you, but you don’t have the right to do anything.”

Ruiz has granted permission for her name to be published despite the fact that the press typically does not identify sexual assault victims, and she takes part in rallies organised by activists who support her.

Even though Ruiz had been raped, the Mexico State court found her guilty of homicide with “excessive use of legitimate defence” on Monday. It added that hitting the man in the head would have been sufficient for defence.

Ruiz was also ordered to pay more than USD 16,000 in reparations to the family of the man who raped her.

In May 2021, Ruiz was employed as a fry salesperson in Nezahualcoyotl, one of the 11 municipalities in Mexico State that were under a gender alert for femicides and a separate alert for women being forcedly abducted.

Ruiz, an Indigenous Mixteca woman from the state of Oaxaca and a single mother, met a man she had seen around the neighbourhood while drinking beer with a friend. He offered to walk her home after they spent some time together, but later asked to stay the night because it was late and he was far from his house.

He was granted permission by Ruiz to rest on a floor mattress. Ruiz’s legal defence claims that while she was sleeping, he climbed onto her bed, hit her, tore off her clothes, and then sexually assaulted her.

Ruiz fought back, hitting him in the nose. He threatened to kill her, and in the struggle to free herself she killed him in self defence.

In a panic, Ruiz put the man’s body in a bag and dragged it out to the street where passing police arrested her.

Despite telling police she had been raped, Carrera said a forensic exam was never taken, a crucial step in prosecuting sexual violence cases. Instead, an officer responded that she probably wanted to have sex with the man at first and then changed her mind, he said.

“I regret what I did, but if I hadn’t done it I would be dead today,” Ruiz told the press in an interview last year, adding, “It’s evident that the state wants to shut us up, wants us to be submissive, wants us closed up inside, wants us dead.”

Women’s rights groups have repeatedly accused Mexican authorities of revictimising survivors and failing to judge cases with a gender perspective.

Ruiz spent nine months in jail on charges of homicide with excess of legitimate self-defense, and was finally released to await trial.

Nearly half of Mexican women have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime, government data shows.

In 2022, the Mexican government registered a total of 3,754 women – an average of 10 a day – who were intentionally killed, a significant jump from the year before. Only a third were investigated as femicides.

That number is likely just a fraction of the real number due to rising disappearances and lack of reporting of violence in the country.

Angelica Ospina, gender fellow for International Crisis Group in Mexico, said she worries that the sentencing may empower victimisers while discouraging women from reporting gender-based violence or defend themselves.

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The case points to just how “normalized” gender-based violence is in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, Ospina said.

“When a woman defends herself, the system is particularly efficient in processing and sentencing her without taking into consideration the conditions in which she killed the man,” Ospina said.

Meanwhile, outside the courtroom, women carried signs and chanted “justice!” A tearful Ruiz stood before the crowd, thanking feminist groups and the women who had supported her through the years-long judicial process.

Speaking to the crowd, she thought of her 4-year-old son.

“My son, I hope to see him again. I hope to stay with him, to be the one who watches him grow up,” Ruiz said