NEW YORK - A Ghanaian woman who won political asylum in the United States with a highly publicized claim that she would face genital mutilation if sent back to her native Ghana was indicted on Monday for lying to U.S. authorities.
Regina Norman Danson, who called herself Adelaide Abankwah, had generated widespread sympathy in the late 1990s as women's rights groups, celebrities including actresses Julia Roberts and Vanessa Redgrave, politicians and even Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was first lady at the time, rallied to her cause.
But in December 2000, The Washington Post alleged that Danson was an impostor and had concocted an elaborate lie claiming she would be mutilated by her tribe when they discovered she had lost her virginity before ascending to the position of "queen mother."
The indictment, filed in Brooklyn federal court, charges Danson, 34, who has been living in Manhattan, with eight counts of perjury and making false statements and one count of passport fraud. The passport fraud count carries a possible maximum prison term of 10 years and the other counts carry maximum terms of five years.
The indictment alleges that when she entered the United States on March 29, 1997, Danson presented the Immigration and Naturalization Service with a doctored Ghanaian passport with the name Adelaide Abankwah. The INS detected the alleged fraud and told her she could not enter the United States, prosecutors said.
During a May 1997 exclusion hearing, she admitted entering the United States with a forged passport purchased in Ghana and the immigration judge ruled she should be excluded from the United States. However, Danson subsequently filed an asylum application using the name Adelaide Abankwah and claimed she would be mutilated if forced to return to Ghana.
A TALE OF TRIBAL NOBILITY
The indictment alleged that during a September 1997 hearing before another immigration judge, she said she was born into a small tribe in Ghana and that her mother was designated the tribe's "queen mother," empowered to lead religious rituals and make rules for other women.She said that after her mother died in 1996, she was chosen by tribal elders to become the next queen mother. Danson, who had had sex with a boyfriend, refused. She also refused to perform rituals intended to determine if she was a virgin or enter into an arranged marriage.
Danson claimed she fled the country because she faced genital mutilation for losing her virginity.
After listening to her testimony and considering the evidence, the immigration judge denied the asylum application and his decision was affirmed by the Board of Immigration Appeals.
However, in July 1999, a federal appeals court in Manhattan ruled Danson had shown that her fears of genital mutilation were "grounded in reality" and reversed the ruling denying her asylum.
The Washington Post's 2000 article alleged that Danson was really a former hotel worker from Ghana who made up the mutilation story when she was caught entering the United States with a forged passport.
The paper said the real Adelaide Abankwah was living near Washington and is a former college student whose passport was stolen in Ghana.
The Post said INS investigators had recommended Danson be prosecuted on a fraud charge. But it cited U.S. officials familiar with the case as saying the Justice Department had been reluctant to prosecute because of fear of embarrassing politicians and Clinton administration officials who earlier supported the woman's cause.
NEW YORK - A Ghanaian woman who won political asylum in the United States with a highly publicized claim that she would face genital mutilation if sent back to her native Ghana was indicted on Monday for lying to U.S. authorities.
Regina Norman Danson, who called herself Adelaide Abankwah, had generated widespread sympathy in the late 1990s as women's rights groups, celebrities including actresses Julia Roberts and Vanessa Redgrave, politicians and even Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was first lady at the time, rallied to her cause.
But in December 2000, The Washington Post alleged that Danson was an impostor and had concocted an elaborate lie claiming she would be mutilated by her tribe when they discovered she had lost her virginity before ascending to the position of "queen mother."
The indictment, filed in Brooklyn federal court, charges Danson, 34, who has been living in Manhattan, with eight counts of perjury and making false statements and one count of passport fraud. The passport fraud count carries a possible maximum prison term of 10 years and the other counts carry maximum terms of five years.
The indictment alleges that when she entered the United States on March 29, 1997, Danson presented the Immigration and Naturalization Service with a doctored Ghanaian passport with the name Adelaide Abankwah. The INS detected the alleged fraud and told her she could not enter the United States, prosecutors said.
During a May 1997 exclusion hearing, she admitted entering the United States with a forged passport purchased in Ghana and the immigration judge ruled she should be excluded from the United States. However, Danson subsequently filed an asylum application using the name Adelaide Abankwah and claimed she would be mutilated if forced to return to Ghana.
A TALE OF TRIBAL NOBILITY
The indictment alleged that during a September 1997 hearing before another immigration judge, she said she was born into a small tribe in Ghana and that her mother was designated the tribe's "queen mother," empowered to lead religious rituals and make rules for other women.She said that after her mother died in 1996, she was chosen by tribal elders to become the next queen mother. Danson, who had had sex with a boyfriend, refused. She also refused to perform rituals intended to determine if she was a virgin or enter into an arranged marriage.
Danson claimed she fled the country because she faced genital mutilation for losing her virginity.
After listening to her testimony and considering the evidence, the immigration judge denied the asylum application and his decision was affirmed by the Board of Immigration Appeals.
However, in July 1999, a federal appeals court in Manhattan ruled Danson had shown that her fears of genital mutilation were "grounded in reality" and reversed the ruling denying her asylum.
The Washington Post's 2000 article alleged that Danson was really a former hotel worker from Ghana who made up the mutilation story when she was caught entering the United States with a forged passport.
The paper said the real Adelaide Abankwah was living near Washington and is a former college student whose passport was stolen in Ghana.
The Post said INS investigators had recommended Danson be prosecuted on a fraud charge. But it cited U.S. officials familiar with the case as saying the Justice Department had been reluctant to prosecute because of fear of embarrassing politicians and Clinton administration officials who earlier supported the woman's cause.
