Home / Crime and Justice / Imam Gets Suspended Sentence for Illegal Child Marriage
Imam Gets Suspended Sentence for Illegal Child Marriage
19 Jan
Summary
- An imam received a suspended prison sentence for officiating an illegal marriage.
- The ceremony involved two 16-year-olds, below the legal age of 18.
- The imam claimed ignorance of the law change raising the marriage age.
An imam has been given a suspended prison sentence for performing an illegal marriage ceremony for two 16-year-olds in November 2023. Ashraf Osmani, 52, admitted to two charges of causing a child to marry at Northampton Central Mosque. He was sentenced to 15 weeks in jail, suspended for 12 months.
The judge stated Osmani's actions were negligent, as he ought to have been aware of the law change that raised the minimum marriage age to 18. The court accepted there was no violence or coercion involved, and the teenagers initiated the ceremony voluntarily.
Osmani, who charged £50 for a certificate, claimed he was unaware the law had changed nine months prior. His defense argued this was his only mistake in two decades of conducting ceremonies, attributing his actions to a genuine mistake regarding the legal age for marriage.
