Federal court convicts phony
African “princess” of falsehoods. Having entered the U.S. on a fake
passport in 1997, Regina Danson asked for asylum, alleging that she was an
outcast tribal princess from Ghana. She claimed that she had breached tribal
law by converting to Christianity, by secretly falling in love, and by losing
her virginity. According to Danson, the tribal elders would punish her by
female genital mutilation (FGM) if she had to go back to that country. The
asylum judge rejected her application, pointing out that her true identity was
unclear and that, in any event, Ghana had outlawed FGM in 1994. An appellate
court then overturned this ruling in 1999. The following year, however, an INS
inquiry found that Danson’s story was wholly fictional. The investigators
concluded that she had been a Ghanaian hotel employee who had taken on the
identity of a woman named Adelaide Abankwah. A federal grand jury indicted
Danson in 2002 on charges of perjury, false-statement and passport fraud.
During her trial, tribal chief, Nana Kwa Bonko, testified that Danson did not
belong to the tribe’s royal family and that his area of Ghana did not practice
FGM. On January 15, 2003, the jury came in with a verdict of guilty on the
charge of lying to immigration officials. Citation: Chicago Tribune,
Wednesday, January 22, 2003, page 2 (byline of Tom Hays, Associated Press
writer).
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