The presiding judge of the collective announced, that "there is no doubt that the practices [in trial] integrate the crime of female genital mutilation" and recalled that this practice is "a flagrant violation of human rights".

The judge also highlighted the "high illegality, she is a mother who attacks her own daughter", the "premeditation" of an organised trip to Guinea and the failure in the "duties of care" for the daughter.

The court also found that, given that "she showed no regrets", it raised the possibility of recurrence in the future.

This was the first trial for a crime of female genital mutilation in Portugal, where the practice has been considered a crime since 2015.

Rugui Djaló, a Guinean citizen residing in Portugal, is accused of having submitted to the practice, her daughter, Maimuna, when she was one year old, during a three-month stay in Guinea-Bissau, in 2019.

Guinea-Bissau - where female genital mutilation has been punishable by law since 2011 - is the only Portuguese-speaking country on international lists of the practice, with an estimated half of its women having been victims of this crime.