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A Muslim cleric who performed a marriage ceremony between a 14-year-old girl and a 34-year-old man in Melbourne was on Wednesday spared prison.
Imam Ibrahim Omerdic, 62, of the Bosnian Islamic Society and Noble Park Mosque, was found guilty on June 9 of officiating at the wedding ceremony held in September 2016.
He was arrested two months later and suspended from the mosque.
Melbourne Magistrate Phillip Goldberg sentenced Omerdic to prison for his “serious breach of trust,” but released him immediately on a two-year good behaviour order.
Video footage of the ceremony showed Omerdic telling the girl it was her duty to obey her husband.
“If (he) is happy with something, do it. If (he) is not happy with something, don’t do it,” he tells the girl.
Omerdic had fought the charge, arguing the marriage had not been formalized under Australian law. But the
magistrate found that the ceremony was completed and the marriage had occurred.
Prosecutor Krista Breckweg said the cleric had “knowingly” married a child to an older man, had shown no remorse
for his actions and should be jailed in order to prevent future child weddings.
“There needs to be a message sent to the community that this will not be tolerated… You can’t do this,” she
said.
Defence lawyer Daniel Gurvich said Omerdic had already been suspended from the mosque and as a justice of the
peace, a role in which he acted as an independent witness for affidavits and other official documents.
“It was not a pre-meditated criminal offence,” Gurvich said.
“There was a degree of spontaneity, poor judgment and regret.” (NAN)
