(ABC-Australia) The reach of laws against female genital mutilation (FGM) will be tested in the High Court today, as it considers calls for a retrial of three people accused of carrying out a practice known as khatna on two young sisters in Wollongong.
Former nurse Kubra Magennis and a Dawoodi Bohra community leader, Shabbir Mohammedbhai Vaziri, were found guilty along with the girls’ mother of breaching the law in 2015.
It was Australia’s first female genital mutilation prosecution.
But the charges were quashed last year by the New South Wales Court of Appeal after new evidence that there was no visible physical damage to either girl.
Khatna is said to involve a girl’s clitoris being nicked or cut during a ceremony in the presence of elders.
