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A
British doctor, accused of performing illegal female genital mutilation on a
young woman after she delivered a baby, has gone on trial in London. He is
facing up to 14 years in jail in the first case of its kind in the UK.
The
hearing, which started on January 13 in London's Southwark Crown Court, resumes
on January 20; the court has been adjourned.
The
woman, 24 at the time, who gave birth in Whittington Hospital, north London, in
November 2012 had suffered a genital mutilation when she was six in Somalia.
The procedure involved her labia being partially sewn together.
The
prosecution claims that Doctor Dhanuson Dharmasena violated the Female Genital
Mutilation Act 2003, when he cut through the scar tissue of the woman and put
in two stitches, thus, partly sewing her labia back together.
“It
is that stitching back together by Dr Dharmasena, and Mr Mohamed (a second man
in the case)’s insistence or encouragement, which the prosecution says is an
offence under the Act,” Kate Bex, prosecuting, said, as cited by
the Daily Mail.
The
operation, known as infibulation, leaves the vaginal opening too narrow to
allow a baby to be born naturally.
Doctor
Dharmasena, who had started working in the hospital a month before the
incident, was delivering the baby, and decided to cut the scar tissue to allow
the baby to arrive. He made a cut of 1.5-2cm long to help the baby, which the
doctor said was in distress, to be born.
A
junior doctor and a midwife noticed him conducting the illegal procedure and
reported him to the authorities, after which the investigation followed.
Doctor
Dharmasena first claimed he did so on the insistence of the second doctor,
Hasan Mohamed, Prosecutor Kate Bex told the Court.
He
then, however, said that the operation was his patient’s request
“At
no point in time did I intentionally or deliberately want to cause any harm to
the patient,” Dharmasena said. “I had obeyed all of the patient's wishes.”
However,
the prosecutor commented that the operation should not have been performed
unless medically necessary.
Doctor
Dharmasena rejects the accusation of FGM Act violation. Mohamed also denies any
accusation of aiding or abetting the procedure and of intentionally encouraging
or assisting the committing of an offence.
The
operation can cause severe health problems, including gynaecological,
urological and obstetric problems in women, chronic pain and sexual dysfunction
and can even lead to death.
More than 125 million girls
and women alive today have undergone the genital mutilation in the 29 countries
in Africa and Middle East where FGM is concentrated, according to the World
Health Organization.
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