Imprisoned Ethiopian man deported after mutilating his 2-year-old daughter’s genitalia with scissors

An Ethiopian man was on Monday deported from the US after serving his ten-year jail sentence for mutilating the genitals of his then 2-year-old daughter. 41-year-old Khalid Adem was imprisoned in 2006 after he became the first person convicted of female genital mutilation in the United States, a ritualistic practice which is widely condemned in western countries. He was ordered removed from the country by a federal judge and returned to his native country of Ethiopia on Monday. 

Adem committed the grisly act at his family's Atlanta apartment in 2001 and was subsequently slammed with aggravated battery and cruelty to children charges in the first degree. Speaking after his deportation, Sean Gallagher, a director with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, stressed the seriousness of Adem's actions. 

'A young girl's life has been forever scarred by this horrible crime,' Gallagher said in a statement. 'The elimination of female genital mutilation/cutting has broad implications for the health and human rights of women and girls, as well as societies at large.'

Adem's case led to the implementation of a new Georgia law banning the procedure, which was already illegal under federal statutes.