April 10, 2013
Mother spared jail for girl's circumcision
BARCELONA, Spain, April 10 (UPI) -- A Senegalese woman whose young daughter was circumcised before her arrival in Spain has been given a two-year suspended sentence.
The court ordered the woman to pay her daughter 10,000 euros ($13,000) in compensation for the operation, which is also called female genital mutilation, thinkSpain reported Tuesday.
The sentence was reduced from the seven years sought by the prosecution because the woman did not realize female circumcision is illegal in Spain. The 40-year-old woman will not have to serve any time if she is not convicted of anything else.
The woman immigrated to Barcelona with her children in 2010 after her husband, who had been working in Spain for more than a decade, got a family visa. The circumcision was discovered during a routine medical checkup.
The woman told authorities the circumcision took place while her daughter was staying with her grandmother, and she did not find out about it until it had been completed.
In the only other case involving female circumcision, a Gambian immigrant was sentenced to six years in prison for arranging the surgery in Spain.
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