A doctor in Egypt was jailed on Monday for two years after the death of a 13-year-old girl on whom he performed genital mutilation (FGM), the first conviction since the practice was outlawed in 2008, the prosecutor said.
The doctor and the girl's father were acquitted by a lower court in November 2014 in a ruling that brought criticism from rights groups about Egypt's commitment to protecting girls from a practice the United Nations says affects more than 90 percent of Egyptian women aged 15-49.
Overturning the decision, a court in the Nile Delta province of Dakahlia sentenced Raslan Fadl to jail with labour for manslaughter and three additional months for performing FGM, prosecutor Ahmed Reda said.
The girl's father was given a 3-month suspended sentence for taking his daughter to be cut. The clinic where the procedure was performed was ordered closed for a year.
The girl died in June 2013 after undergoing FGM at Fadl's clinic. FGM, the partial or total removal of external female genitalia, is practised in some African and Muslim countries.
Performing FGM in Egypt is punishable by three months to two years in prison. Rights groups say the law has not been enforced and society is permissive of FGM.
Egypt's 2008 law was enacted after the death of an 11-year-old girl following FGM in Minya the previous year.
