Egypt doctor convicted of female genital mutilation

An Egyptian lawyer says an appeals court has convicted a doctor of manslaughter and performing a female genital mutilation that killed a 13-year-old girl, sentencing him to two years and three months in prison.

Lawyer Reda al-Danbouki says the verdict Monday was “a triumph for women” and for Sohair el-Batea, who died in 2013. An earlier court had initially acquitted the doctor in a landmark trial.

Rights advocates say the court’s decision could serve as a deterrent for doctors and families. Female genital mutilation was criminalized in 2008, but remains widespread in Egypt, where more than 90 percent of women are estimated to have undergone it.

Al-Danbouki said the doctor’s clinic was ordered closed for a year, and that el-Batea’s father received a three-month suspended sentence.

— AP