CAIRO: A criminal court in Egypt has given a historic ruling in the case of a nurse and a father whose teenage daughter underwent female genital mutilation.
The father was imprisoned for three years with hard labor, and the nurse who performed the procedure was tried in absentia and given 10 years in prison.
This is the longest sentence to date after an amendment to the law earlier this year introduced much harsher sentences for FGM.
The pair were arrested in February after they were reported by a doctor in the hospital that the girl was taken to due to heavy bleeding after a botched operation.
The court said the incident was committed before the FGM law was amended, so they were given the maximum sentence permissible under the old law, which had never been applied.
“Every girl has the right to report any violation of her body, even if she is a child, and every guardian should think twice before taking this step (FGM) so that their inevitable fate will not be in the criminal court,” it added.
The amended law stipulates that anyone who practices FGM shall be imprisoned for no less than five years.
If the procedure leads to disability, the period is increased to no less than seven years, and if it leads to death, the prison term is no less than 10 years.