US judge drops mutilation charges against doctor

A US judge dropped federal charges against a Michigan doctor accused of female genital mutilation, ruling that Congress overstepped its authority.

In what was hailed a landmark case, Dr Jumana Nagarwala was charged in April last year with performing the widely condemned practice on nine girls at a clinic in Livonia, Michigan, over a period of 12 years.

But in a decision filed on Tuesday, Judge Bernard Friedman ruled that Congress had “overstepped its bounds by legislating to prohibit FGM”.

Instead the practice should be considered a “‘local criminal activity’ which, in keeping with long-standing tradition and our federal system of government, is for the states to regulate, not Congress”, he said.

Congress passed a law in 1996 making it illegal to perform genital mutilation or cutting on any girl younger than 18.

Twenty-seven US states also have anti-FGM legislation, including Michigan, although 23 states have not criminalised the practice.

“As despicable as this practice may be, it is essentially a criminal assault,” Mr Friedman wrote.

The judge’s ruling meant charges of conspiring to commit and committing FGM were dropped, as well as counts of aiding and abetting others to do so. Dr Nagarwala still faces other conspiracy charges.

Her lawyer, Shannon Smith, was quoted by CNN as saying that her client was ecstatic over the decision, but “nervous because she still faces other charges in federal court”.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 513,000 women and girls in the United States in 2012 were at risk of or had been subjected to female genital mutilation.

This statistic was three times higher than one based on 1990 data, because of increased immigration from countries where genital mutilation is practised.

Globally, at least 200 million girls and women alive today have suffered some form of FGM across 30 countries, according to the United Nations.

While concentrated in Africa, it is common in some communities in Asia, Arab states and Latin America. Half of those who have been cut live in Egypt, Ethiopia and Indonesia, according to the UN.