Doctor, Wife In Genital Mutilation Case Seek Jail Release

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) — A Detroit-area doctor and his wife accused in a female genital mutilation case are returning to court to find out if they can be released from jail.

Prosecutors are expected to ask a judge Wednesday to keep Dr. Fakhruddin Attar and his wife, Farida, locked up while their case winds through federal court.

They're accused of conspiring with another doctor who is charged with performing genital mutilation on 7-year-old Minnesota girls at a clinic. The Livonia clinic is owed by Dr. Attar. The government says he allowed Dr. Jumana Nagarwala to see young girls there after hours.

Genital mutilation, also known as cutting, has been condemned by the United Nations and is outlawed in the U.S. Nagarwala and the Attars belong to a Muslim sect known as Dawoodi Bohra. The practice involves cutting away all, or some, of a girl's external genitalia.

This couple is the second to face charges of genital mutilation in the last few weeks. Dr. Jumana Nagarwala was also charged with the crime. Attorney Shannon Smith claims Nagarwala only removed mucous from two Minnesota girls in February and then handed the gauze to the family for burial as part of a religious practice.

Smith says Nagarwala is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra community, a Muslim sect concentrated mostly in India. The group has a mosque in suburban Detroit.

A judge ordered Nagarwala to jail without bond, saying she's a threat to the public. Federal prosecutors say her charges were the first ever issued in the United States.

(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)