CAIRO: An Egyptian doctor sentenced to two years in prison over a girl’s death during a female circumcision operation said Tuesday he was on the run, but an NGO claimed he is still practicing.
Police said they were seeking the doctor, Raslan Fadl, after his sentencing in January and denied the claim that his clinic is still open.
Fadl is the first doctor sentenced to prison for female genital mutilation (FGM), since the practice, still widespread, was banned in 2008.
The court in Mansoura province also handed a suspended three-month sentence to the father of the victim, 14-year-old Sohair Al-Bataa.
Eleven months later, Fadl said he was still free and hiding from police.
“I am in very bad condition,” he told AFP by phone. “I am moving around every day, scared of detectives. They want to apply the sentence and I have to move around.”
Fadl denied that he was practicing medicine, but the New York-based women’s rights group Equality Now said his clinic was still open.
“He has not served a single day of his prison sentence and his clinic remains open,” the group said.
The group said representatives had traveled to his province demanding his arrest.
“Though the chief of police promised to do within 48 hours, Dr. Fadl still remains free,” it said.
A police official told AFP Fadl was being sought. “There is a final ruling against this doctor, and we are trying to apprehend him,” he said, adding that the clinic was closed. FGM involves extreme mutilation, in a bid to control women’s sexuality