Justice of the Peace Douglas Smith issued a bench warrant Tuesday for a deported German national woman facing child abuse charges in Clark County.

Federal authorities took Samaneh Rezaei, 25, back to Germany in December because her tourist visa had expired.

She's been charged with two child abuse and neglect related felonies and is accused of allowing her former boyfriend, Las Vegas resident Arash Hashemi, to beat her 3-year-old daughter nearly to death.

The bench warrant sets the stage for an international extradition, prosecutor Christopher Lalli said. He wouldn't say whether the district attorney's office would pursue the cumbersome process to bring Rezaei back to the United States.

Her attorney, Thomas Pitaro, asked Lalli to request a waiver from federal authorities to allow her to come back legally to face the charges.

"If the state will do that, then she will come back," Pitaro said, adding that she cannot legally return without prosecutors' help.

"It was always our intention for her to deal with these charges," he said.

Pitaro said Las Vegas police were present in December when federal authorities arrested Rezaei at Clark County Family Court in order to deport her and suggested the district attorney's office brought her expired visa to U.S. immigration authorities' attention.

"You guys kind of started this," Smith told Lalli.

Lalli said to the best of his knowledge the district attorney's office did not ask federal authorities to get involved. He said the warrant basically freezes the status of the case and that U.S. law enforcement officials can arrest Rezaei if they come into contact with her on U.S. soil.

But, Lalli said, it is not prosecutors' responsibility to ensure the defendant is on U.S. soil legally.

"Do you want to prosecute her?" Smith asked Lalli in court.

"Of course I want to," Lalli replied.

"Our job is to look at this little baby and what happened here and to get justice for that," he said outside the court.

Child abuse charges against Hashemi, Rezaei's former boyfriend, have been dropped; but prosecutors have notified Hashemi he faces the prospect of a grand jury indictment.

Rezaei and Hashemi took the child to Summerlin Hospital's emergency room on Aug 25. In addition to head trauma, emergency room doctors noted extensive bruising in various stages of healing on the child's body.

Rezaei told police the Aug. 25 injuries, which required extensive surgery, were a result of a tumble down the stairs, but medical experts said the wounds were not consistent with a fall.

The child was placed in foster care after she was released from the hospital and her Turkish father, who lives in Germany, is trying to get custody of the girl.