Car torched to 'get rid of black magic' after elderly Imam 'attacked', trial hears

Azizur Rahman and Shoha Miah are on trial and deny offences of kidnap, causing grievous bodily harm, non-fatal strangulation, robbery and perverting the course of justice. Mr Rahman, denies further offences of threatening the man with a blade and making threats to kill a woman

A car was burned to rid it of ‘black magic’ after an elderly Imam was ‘kidnapped’ and ‘beaten’ until he was ‘covered in blood’, a trial has heard.

The 87-year-old Imam was bundled into an Audi A7 car in September 2024. Inside, he was repeatedly punched, hit with a plastic stick, and strangled by two men, prosecutors say.

The elderly man was dumped on a dark, quiet road in Oldham Road in Rishworth, before he stumbled towards the home of a woman who found him drenched in blood and called the emergency services. The Imam had been stripped of his clothes, leaving him in his underwear, and his ear was ‘pouring with blood so it did not present as an ear anymore’, said the woman who made the discovery.

He was left with a number of injuries including a bleed on the brain, a wound to his ear, a swelling to his cheekbone, a large bruise to his neck and a missing tooth, said prosecutor Saul Brody.

The trial at Manchester Crown Court continued today (March 31). Azizur Rahman, 40, and Shoha Miah, 24, two friends, are alleged to have kidnapped the man after Mr Rahman had learned the Imam had carried out an ‘exorcism’ on a child.

Days after the alleged attack, Mr Rahman told jurors he torched the Audi on a public road using petrol and butane. Mr Rahman denied that this was to get rid of the car because it was ‘full of blood’, saying: “There was black magic in the car…

“I burned out the car in a public street to get rid of the black magic… It wasn’t a safe and sensible thing to do but it had to be done.”

“Because of the magic?” asked Mr Brody. “Yes,” replied Mr Rahman, who added that he was ‘burning the magic away’.

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Manchester Crown Court has previously heard that the Imam had been asked by a woman to help her child, and so he gave them an ‘Taweez’ or ‘amulet’ for protection.

Mr Brody told jurors that the background to the offence was ‘a little odd’. He said Mr Rahman’s wife had a child from a previous relationship who had been experiencing some ‘issues’.

Both men are on trial and deny offences of kidnap, causing grievous bodily harm, non-fatal strangulation, robbery and perverting the course of justice. Mr Rahman, denies further offences of threatening the man with a blade and making threats to kill the woman.

“As a result she decided to ask a senior member of the Muslim community to come to the house and do by whatever means they can to assist the child by some sort of exorcism and removing an 'evil spirit' from the child,” said Mr Brody earlier in the trial, on March 26.

The victim had been asked to go to the house by the women and read ‘notes from the Quran’, it was said.

“Mr Rahman did not want that particular Imam to be employed or recruited to do that - he wanted somebody else,” the prosecutor added. “It’s really just that which enraged him so much that he wanted to exact revenge.”

On September 15 last year, a black Audi A7 pulled into the 247 Hotel on Windsor Road, Oldham. Both men checked in, with Mr Rahman using his brother’s driving licence, the court heard.

The pair told the court that they had gone to the hotel to ‘rest’, as well as to ‘drink alcohol’ and ‘sniff cocaine away from their families’. Mr Miah said he had been taking cocaine throughout that day.

Shortly after checking in, they left the hotel together in the Audi and pulled up in front of the victim on Leigh Street at around 9pm. He had been visiting somebody at the time and was walking home, it was said.

Mr Miah says he was told by Mr Rahman that the Imam was his uncle, suffering from dementia and needed help. Mr Miah claimed he did not know on the day of the incident that ‘he was a man who performed exorcisms’.

The two men claim they were ‘helping’ the man into the Audi to go and get some food from a takeaway 35 minutes away in Bradford. They claim that the Imam became ‘very aggressive’ and started attacking them.

Mr Rahman told jurors that he caused some of the Imam’s injuries after he retaliated in ‘self-defence’ against the elderly man. Mr Rahman said the elderly man took his own clothes off and was muttering ‘black magic’ after he got out of the car, telling the court: “He was going mad.”

Mr Miah was driving the Audi at the time of the incident, but the car was actually owned by Mr Rahman, who does not have a driving licence, with Mr Rahman’s brother named as the registered keeper, the court was told. Mr Miah also claims he never caused any injuries to the Imam.

The Audi was left outside Mr Miah’s house before being burned days later.

On September 16, 2024, both defendants went back to the hotel on foot. They were later seen getting out of a Volkswagen Polo, owned by Mr Miah, at a massage parlour at 3.30am. Prosecutor Mr Brody told jurors the pair had used £200 of cash stolen from the Imam during the incident in the parlour.

Mr Rahman of Bluebell Walk, St Mary’s Way; and Mr Miah, of Firbank Road, Royton, deny the offences.

Proceeding.