DETROIT, MI -- A federal assistant prosecutor on Wednesday indicated more charges are possible in a Metro Detroit genital mutilation case against two doctors and one doctor's wife.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Woodward told a judge at a hearing at the U.S. District Court in Detroit that she's meeting with a grand jury next week, according to the Associated Press.

The grand jury is a body empowered to review evidence and issue criminal charges.

The case involved Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, 53, and his wife, Farida Attar 50, both of Livonia, who are charged with conspiring to perform female genital mutilation surgeries led by co-defendant Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, a former Henry Ford surgeon, on two 7-year-old girls from Minnesota at Dr. Attar's Livonia medical clinic.

Nagarwala was described as the "most culpable" by Woodward at a prior hearing bond hearing.

Prosecutors claim Nargawala, assisted by Farida Attar, conducted genital mutilation surgery on two 7-year-old girls on Feb. 3, but claim Dr. Attar has helped coordinate and host the surgeries in his clinic since 2005.

Woodward previously called the two Minnesota girls "just the last victims in a long line of children" who underwent the illegal surgery.

All three defendants are jailed without the possibility of bond pending trial or resolution of the case, although a request for another review of their detention is scheduled in federal court on June 8.

Magistrate Judge Elizabeth A. Stafford at the Attars bond hearing said their behavior, including claims they participated in or coordinated genital mutilation surgeries they knew were illegal, possibly for more than a decade, made them at threat to the public.

The Attars and Nagarwala are members of a Muslim sect known as the Dawoodi Bohra, which originated in western India and has traditionally condoned genital mutilation for young girls, the Associated Press reported. The defendants attend the Anjuman-e-Najmi Detroit, a Dawoodi Bohra mosque located in Farmington Hills.

According to the AP, the defense team hired Alan Dershowitz, a nationally known attorney famous for representing O.J. Simpson, Jack Kevorkian, Mike Tyson, Patty Hearst and Jim Bakker, along with defense attorney Mayer Morganroth, thee weeks ago to join the defense team.

They were hired by the Dawat-e-Hadiyah, which oversees smaller Shia Muslim sects around the world, the AP reports.

Mary Chartier, another attorney for Fakhruddin Attar, said at a bond hearing in May that she intended to challenge the constitutionality of the 1997-passed federal law banning genital mutilation on grounds it's vague, overreaching and violates religious freedom.

She noted that male circumcision, which also has religious origins -- but is seen by some as practical for hygienic reasons -- is legal while a similar procedure for girls is not.

The practice has existed for centuries among certain religious and cultural factions.

The practice of genital mutilation involves removing pars of or the entirety of a woman's labia or clitoris, usually when they are between 6 and 9, according to prosecutors.

The reasons for the operation vary, but include religious tradition, hygiene and intend to reduce sexual urges in women to decrease infidelity and promote virginity, according to the World Health Organization, an aggressive opponent of the practice.

According to Chartier, the practice is a secretive one, even within the religion, and is almost always performed by women.

According to prosecutors, the defendants' mosque issued a memo in 2016 notifying members the practice of genital mutilation violated federal law.

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy issued a public letter to the mosque in April urging its leaders to condemn the doctors accused of performing genital mutilation and the practice itself.

"Female genital mutilation has serious implications for the health and well-being of girls and women," acting U.S. Attorney Daniel Lemisch said in a statement. "This brutal practice is conducted on girls for one reason, to control them as women. (Genital mutilation) will not be tolerated in the United States. The federal government is continuing this investigation to ensure those responsible are brought to justice."

One of the girls believed to have underwent the surgery in Livonia told investigators they were brought to Detroit for a special "girls" trip.

After arriving at an area hotel, they were told they would be taken to a doctor for a procedure to "get the germs out of their hurting tummies."

The mothers rented a hotel room in Farmington Hills, checked in on that day and checked out the next day.

In an order to keep Nargarwala behind bars until trial, a federal magistrate judge included graphic details in her explanation for the ruling to deny bond:

"The girls were laid on an examining table, told to put their knees to their chests with their legs spread apart, that the doctor pinched them in the place where they "pee," that there was blood on the examining table, that they were in pain and could barely walk, and were given pads to put in their underwear. Both girls were told not to talk about what happened at the clinic by Defendant and their parents. One of the girls told an investigator that she left one of her winter gloves at the clinic. The glove, which had the minor victim's name written on it, was retrieved by agents after a search of the clinic."

Nagarwala claims she only removed mucous from each girl's genitals using gauze, and gave the gauze to their mothers to bury as part of a religious act, according to the court document.

All three defendants in the genital mutilation case are expected to return to federal court in Detroit for a pretrial hearing on June 6.