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01-09-2004 07:26 PM |
Female Prisoners Stage Nude Protest
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,107979,00.html
Female Prisoners Stage Nude Protest
Friday, January 09, 2004
GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador ? About 20 women inmates stripped off clothing Friday and protested from their prison roof, claiming they've been held for more than a year without trial and should be freed.
"We want a hearing. We are demanding our rights. We want freedom," Cinthia Perez said as she covered herself with a towel.
The protest began at around noon when the women forced their way through the security screen of a window and scrambled to the roof. They set ablaze tires found on the roof, sending up plumes of black smoke that attracted the attention of passers-by.
The four-hour protest was peaceful and prison officials eventually allowed reporters in to speak to the women, five of whom were nude and the others in various stages of undress.
Protester Martha Sanchez said the group had decided to stage the demonstration "so that the authorities see to what point we will go."
The women claimed that under Ecuadorean law, people accused of crimes cannot be held for more than a year without trial.
National Prison Director Fernando Cassis (search) told reporters Friday the Supreme Justice Court would address their claims.
The Guayaquil (search) prison, 170 miles southwest of the Ecuadorean capital, Quito (search), was designed to house 600 people, but holds more than 1,500 inmates, including about 400 women.
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