A 47-year-old man was sentenced Thursday by British courts to four and a half years in prison for organizing a trip to Iraq for a little girl who was to undergo genital mutilation and forced marriage.
This judgment from the Nottingham court is the first in England to condemn this type of “conspiracy”, i.e. the plan to practice female genital mutilation, explained the prosecution.
Emad Kaky, a former doctoral student at the University of Nottingham in central England, had booked and paid for the girl’s trip from the UK to Iraq when his plans were discovered by someone who reported to the police. The facts date back to 2019.
Messages found in her mobile phone “clearly” proved his intention to subject her to genital mutilation and to marry her by force, the prosecution said.
He further claimed during the trial that this practice, banned in many countries around the world, was “normal”.
While delivering the decision, Judge Nirmal Shant described Emad Kaky’s action as “barbaric”.
“When I assess the seriousness of the alleged acts, I not only take into consideration the harm caused, which did not occur in this case, but also the intention to cause harm,” she said .
“You worked to make this happen. This offense requires a dissuasive penalty. What you did, what you planned to do, was barbaric,” the judge continued.
In February, a British woman was sentenced to seven years in prison for handing over a three-year-old girl to a woman who circumcised her during a trip to Kenya, a conviction which was already unprecedented in the United Kingdom.
A 2003 law on genital mutilation provides for a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
These mutilations, which consist of partially or completely removing the clitoris and vaginal lips, are a common practice in certain regions of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. They are still suffered by more than 230 million girls and women around the world.
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