Testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday, FBI Director James Comey highlighted a series of cases being investigated and referred for prosecution by agents across the country. One of the cases he mentioned involves the arrest of two Detroit area doctors in recent weeks who are accused of performing genital mutilation on girls as young as six-years-old.
"This past week for the first time since Congress passed the statute making it a crime in the United States to engage in female genital mutilation, to mutilate little girls, it's been a felony in the United States since 1996, we made the first case last week against doctors in Michigan for doing this terrifying thing to young girls," Comey said. "All across the country with our partners in the Department of Homeland Security, we brought a case against two doctors for doing this to children. This is among the most important work we do, protecting kids and it was done by great work that you don't hear a whole lot about all across the country by the FBI."
The doctors, Jumana Nagarwala and Fakhruddin Attar, have been charged with performing the procedure, conspiracy and with lying to federal agents. Farida Attar, wife of Dr. Fakhruddin, was also arrested for conspiracy and aiding in the procedure.
"This investigation has identified other children who may have been cut by Nagarwala at Attar's clinic, MBC, between 2005 and 2017, including children in Michigan. On April 10, 2017, child forensic interviews employed by the FBI and HSI interviewed several minor girls in Michigan. In these interviews, multiple minor girls informed forensic interviewers that procedures had been performed on their genitals by Nagarwala. One minor girl said that Farida was present during the procedure performed by Nagarwala," the criminal complaint states.
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The victims were driven by their parents across state lines for the extreme procedure, many coming from Minnesota. They will likely face a number of charges.
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