R v Ashraf Zaman Osmani

Facts

The applicant, now 53, had been an Imam at Northampton's Central Mosque since 1996 and had no previous convictions. In November 2023 he was approached by a 16-year-old girl who asked him to conduct a Nikah ceremony with her 16-year-old boyfriend; another mosque had already refused on account of their ages. He agreed, and performed the ceremony on 25 November 2023, the witnesses being two people who happened to be at the mosque, and a £50 fee being paid to the mosque for the certificate. The matter came to light on 1 December 2023 when the girl's foster parents found the certificate in her room and alerted her social worker. Both children told the police that there had been no coercion. In voluntary interviews in July 2024 and April 2025 the applicant said he had known their ages but had not known the law had changed; he had since altered the mosque's internal Nikah checklist. He pleaded guilty before Northampton Magistrates' Court and was committed for sentence under section 14 of the Sentencing Act 2020 for two offences contrary to section 121(3A) and (9) of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. Choudhury J sentenced him to 15 weeks' imprisonment suspended for 12 months. The Registrar referred the application for leave to appeal against sentence to the full court.