Amsterdam - A Dutch court Friday acquitted a father of circumcising his daughter, saying it could not be proved he was responsible for permanently mutilating the child. However, the 30-year-old Moroccan-born defendant was found guilty of abusing the girl, now aged six, whom he repeatedly bit and hit, the court said.
The family court in Haarlem, north of Amsterdam, sentenced him to three months' imprisonment, meaning he was immediately freed, having been arrested already last year.
Public prosecutor spokesman Michiel van der Heijden told reporters the prosecution would appeal the decision not to convict the father of permanently mutilating his daughter.
The father, who has dual Dutch and Moroccan nationality, was arrested after his daughter told her foster mother her father "put scissors" in her genitals. Investigators later established the girl's clitoris and inner labia had been cut off, the court heard.
At a hearing on September 3, the prosecutor demanded a six-year jail term. The father pleaded not guilty and accused the public prosecutor of "racism".
