NY, NY (USA) --A woman from Ghana made a "mockery of the immigration system and real victims of female genital mutilation" with her phony claim for political asylum, a federal prosecutor charged yesterday.
Regina Danson, 33, whose cause was supported by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, actress Julia Roberts and activist Gloria Steinem, had argued in immigration court in 1997 that she would be sexually mutilated if she were deported to Ghana.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronnie Abrams told jurors in Brooklyn Federal Court yesterday that Danson, who had entered the U.S. illegally, "formulated an elaborate lie" in order to stay.
Danson also made up a story that she was in line to replace her mother as queen of their village and faced genital mutilation as punishment for engaging in premarital sex, Abrams said.
Prosecutors intend to call as a witness the village chief, Nana Kwabonko, who will testify that genital mutilation is not practiced in his region and Danson is not of royal lineage.
Defense lawyer Dawn Cardi countered that while genital mutilation is illegal in Ghana, the country has a miserable record of prosecuting anyone for it. She estimated that 1 million to 3 million women in the West African nation have suffered the mutilation and that it is still practiced in the country.
"Pay attention to [the village chief's testimony], whether he even knows my client's clan or tribe," Cardi said.
Danson is charged with passport fraud and lying under oath in the immigration court proceeding. She was arrested in September on the day the statute of limitations would have expired
NY, NY (USA) --A woman from Ghana made a "mockery of the immigration system and real victims of female genital mutilation" with her phony claim for political asylum, a federal prosecutor charged yesterday.
Regina Danson, 33, whose cause was supported by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, actress Julia Roberts and activist Gloria Steinem, had argued in immigration court in 1997 that she would be sexually mutilated if she were deported to Ghana.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronnie Abrams told jurors in Brooklyn Federal Court yesterday that Danson, who had entered the U.S. illegally, "formulated an elaborate lie" in order to stay.
Danson also made up a story that she was in line to replace her mother as queen of their village and faced genital mutilation as punishment for engaging in premarital sex, Abrams said.
Prosecutors intend to call as a witness the village chief, Nana Kwabonko, who will testify that genital mutilation is not practiced in his region and Danson is not of royal lineage.
Defense lawyer Dawn Cardi countered that while genital mutilation is illegal in Ghana, the country has a miserable record of prosecuting anyone for it. She estimated that 1 million to 3 million women in the West African nation have suffered the mutilation and that it is still practiced in the country.
"Pay attention to [the village chief's testimony], whether he even knows my client's clan or tribe," Cardi said.
Danson is charged with passport fraud and lying under oath in the immigration court proceeding. She was arrested in September on the day the statute of limitations would have expired
