An Egyptian court has acquitted the first doctor ever brought to trial in Egypt on female genital mutilation charges that resulted in the death of 13-year-old Sohair al-Bata’a. The doctor and Sohair’s father were both referred to trial after Sohair died in June 2013 at Raslan Halawa’s private medical clinic while undergoing an FGM operation at her father’s request. During the investigation into the death, the father retracted from his initial police report accusing Halawa, instead claiming his daughter was suffering from pelvic pain and was diagnosed of having ‘excess’ skin which had to be removed by a doctor. Halawa meanwhile had denied carrying out the female genital mutilation and said that he had performed an operation to remove ‘excess skin’ which had to be done by cauterization. Halawa insisted Sohair died as a result of an allergic reaction to anaesthesia. Following the death and an investigation, Halawa and Sohair’s father were charged with performing female genital mutilation. The doctor had also been charged with wrongful death. The trial was the first of its kind since Egypt banned the practice in 2008. The punishment for performing female genital mutilation is a prison…
Doctor acquitted after 13-year-old Egyptian girl dies from female genital mutilation
November 20, 2014
