Defense attacks female genital mutilation charges

Excerpt:

Three doctors accused of cutting the genitalia of prepubescent girls want key charges dismissed, arguing that a law banning female genital mutilation is unconstitutional.

The request, filed Friday in federal court, is the first legal challenge to a 22-year-old law that went unused until April 2017. That’s when Dr. Jumana Nagarwala of Northville was arrested and accused of heading a conspiracy that lasted 12 years, involved seven people and led to mutilating the genitalia of girls as part of a religious procedure practiced by some members of the Dawoodi Bohra.

Congress lacked authority to enact a law criminalizing female genital mutilation in 1996, lawyers for Nagarwala and Farmington Hills couple Dr. Fakhruddin Attar and Dr. Farida Attar.

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