Doctor and father in Egypt’s first FGM trial acquitted

A judge acquitted the doctor and father facing criminal charges in Egypt’s first female genital mutilation trial, since the practice was banned six years ago, after the death of 13-year-old Soheir al-Batea from a botched operation in June last year.

The Guardian’s Egypt’s correspondent was at the courthouse at Agga, north of Egypt, where he tweeted:

The decision will be seen as a blow for human rights activists, particularly those working on the rights of women and girls, who have been campaigning for years for an end to the practice that is illegal in Egypt but still widely performed.

The verdict received condemnation from some Egyptian women, including Sky News correspondent Sherine Tadros:

One of the lawyers who pushed for al-Batea’s case to go forward, Reda al-Danbouki, told the Middle East Eye by phone today: “we only know about FGM practices in Egypt when the victim dies, otherwise it just goes on.”

“This verdict is so damaging. It will give doctors the green light to keep practicing FGM,” al-Danbouki said.

The doctor Raslan Fadl was accused of killing al-Batea, while her father Mohamed al-Batea was being charged with complicity in her death.

Fadl denied the charges and said the girl died from an allergic reaction to penicillin that she took during a procedure to remove genital warts.

The doctor was reported to still be practising medicine and even FGM operations, despite the closure of his clinic by the Ministry of Health during the Attorney General’s investigation.

The practice was accepted by many in the Nile Delta area where the family and doctor come from.

Journalist Kristen McTighe said:

According to UNICEF, 91% of married Egyptian women aged between 15 and 49 have been subjected to FGM and medicalisation is on the rise in Egypt with an estimated 72% of procedures being performed by doctors in private clinics.

Activists have been urging the Egyptian government to implement a 2008 penal code that makes FGM illegal.

Fadl allegedly performed the FGM operation on the 13-year-old at her father’s request. When she died from the botched operation, the father initially filed a police report against him.

A few days later, however, the father changed his police statement and denied the operation was for female genital mutilation after reconciling with the doctor at the sum of 60,000 Egyptian pounds, according to al-Danbouki.

The judge Ahmed Al-Khodary is said to be a law graduate of Al-Azhar University, Egypt’s pre-eminent Islamic seat of learning, with sympathies to the practice.

Al-Danbouki, the lawyer, said he is planning to submit a complaint against the judge and appeal to court’s decision.

In December, the New York-based charity Equality Now, which had been campaigning on al-Batea’s behalf, expressed concern that the investigations into the case were being sidelined by the authorities. It said that a long-delayed forensic report lists Soheir’s cause of death as an allergic reaction to penicillin making no mention of FGM despite her father’s initial statement to the police.

After taking the payment from the doctor, the father also changed his statement to match that of Fadl’s saying his daughter suffered from genital warts.

Court proceedings began in May this year, the first ever to take place since the practice was banned in 2008.

On 11 September this year, Equality Now reported that at the trial an Inspector from the Ministry of Health “gave a strong account and confirmed that Soheir had been subjected to FGM.”

Today's verdict received criticism from others on Twitter:

Human Rights Lawyer Mai el-Sadany said: