On May 27, authorities in Veracruz arrested Jorge Ignacio “N,” who was at large for trying to kill his former partner nearly 10 years ago. Ana Katiria Suarez, the victim’s lawyer, hopes that this time he will not be released.
Although he has been arrested twice because his victim reported being beaten by him until he knocked her unconscious and threatened with death, a judge allowed him to conduct his trial in freedom, a situation he took advantage of to escape.
Read more | Survivors of femicide, forgotten by justice
But the nightmare of Diana, who prefers to hide her real name for safety, began before the attack, when Jorge Ignacio began to show violent and controlling attitudes. She decided to leave him, but on the night of October 29, 2011, she came to visit him at his home because he threatened to kill himself if he did not see her.
Diana came and to the pleas of her ex-boyfriend decided to stay for a while. However, Jorge Ignacio took advantage of a moment when he got up to go to the bathroom and when he left he knocked her out with a punch in the face. More blows followed throughout her body and attempts at hanging, accompanied by the warning that he wanted to kill her.
“10 years begging for justice”
Ana Katiria Suárez, the criminal lawyer handling the case, says in an interview that it is a relief to know that the Zuki, as the alleged aggressor is nicknamed, is already off the streets, because it means that there are fewer women at risk of being victims of feminicidal violence. He also hopes this arrest will end “the ten years Diana has begged for justice.”
And this is the third time that Diana has managed to arrest Jorge Ignacio. The first time, Judge Alberto Ruvalcaba reclassified the crime against the defendant, of attempted femicide -for which the victim denounced-, for the crime of malicious injuries that put his life at risk. This allowed him, on bail, to be released in order to continue his trial.
Diana claimed that the authorities had released her assailant and managed to get a new arrest warrant against him in 2013, which was completed four years later, in 2018. However, Judge Santiago Ávila Negrón – known for sentencing Yakiri Rubio to prison, for killing a man who raped her in self-defense – released the Zuki.
On that occasion, the victim was notified that Jorge Ignacio had been released because he was only being investigated for non-life-threatening injuries. The judge considered that these would take a maximum of 60 days to heal.
However, to date, although almost 10 years have passed, he continues with serious sequelae of that beating: due to the emergency surgery they had to perform on his fractured rib, which pierced his abdomen, he lives with gastrointestinal problems and pains in his spine.
The perforation of the abdomen had to be treated with surgery in which his intestine was cut and he has retinal detachment in his right eye. In addition, he has trouble seeing, because the blows caused injuries to his eyes.
Nor has he been able to live in peace again. As a result of the attack, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome, and on two occasions – before Jorge Ignacio’s last arrest – she was threatened by relatives of her assailant for having reported it.
“Now follow the plea with the sentence”
According to lawyer Ana Katiria Suárez, zuki’s arrest reduced the victim’s vulnerability, although “now the plea continues with the sentence, so that the crime of injury to attempted femicide is reclassified and he is convicted of it.”
This time the judge in charge of the case is Apolonio Martínez, of Court 64. The lawyer hopes that this time there will be no reason for Jorge Ignacio to be released.
For Suárez Castro, the worrying thing is that the delay of up to a decade to have justice, in cases where it is possible to arrest and sentence those responsible, and that for this the victims are revictimized, as in the case of Diana.
Currently, the lawyer is accompanying other cases of victims of sexual violence and feminicidal violence, such as that of the girl Fatima, whose body was found lifeless in Tláhuac, Mexico City, in February 2020, and that of Lía, whose mother was chained in offices of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) in demand of justice because she suffered sexual abuse.
For now, the lawyer points out that all that remains is to wait for Jorge Ignacio’s hearing to be held to seek that the judge acknowledges that what he did was to try to murder Diana and judge him with a gender perspective. Meanwhile, they will seek precautionary measures to protect the victim, who fears being attacked in response to the arrest.
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