He was identified as Emad Kaky, aged 47.
“Kaky was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit FGM and forced marriage… He was convicted on September 9 after a ten-day trial,” read a statement from the Crown Prosecution Service.
He intended to send a young girl back to Iraq for the FGM procedure, according to the prosecution.
“Kaky’s plans were uncovered by a witness who arranged for the victim to travel back to the UK and reported him to the police,” the statement added.
He denied the allegations but was sentenced on Thursday.
Kaky, a former doctoral student at the University of Nottingham, was also a visiting scholar.
"The university ended its association with him and withdrew the invitation to him as a visiting academic," said a university spokesperson, according to BBC. "There is no place for such barbaric offenses in our society.”
FGM, or female genital mutilation, involves the partial or total removal of female genitalia for non-medical reasons. This practice continues to varying degrees in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, although it was officially banned by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) under the Domestic Violence Law in 2011.
Janine McKinney, the prosecutor in the case, said that Kaky "considered this behavior to be normal." She described the victim as a "young, innocent girl" who would have faced "unimaginable physical and mental harm" had his plans been successful.
“This has been a landmark prosecution, not just because it is the first conviction of its kind,” McKinney said. “Where there is evidence that people have plotted to commit these offenses, they face prosecution, whether or not they succeed.”
The prosecution service noted this case marks the first conviction in the UK for conspiring to commit FGM and the third FGM-related conviction in England and Wales.
Recent studies from organizations like Heartland Alliance and Wadi show a notable decline in FGM cases in the Kurdistan Region. One study found that while 44.8% of mothers surveyed reported having undergone FGM, only 10.7% of their daughters had been subjected to the practice. The study covered Erbil, Sulaimani, Duhok, and Halabja provinces.
Women and girls who undergo FGM suffer from a range of immediate and long-term health issues, including severe bleeding, infections, urinary problems, complications during childbirth, painful menstruation, and sexual dysfunction.
Niyaz Mustafa contributed to this report
