Ashraf Azad admitted assaulting Afshan Azad The brother of a Harry Potter film actress who assaulted her because her boyfriend was not Muslim has been jailed for six months.
Ashraf Azad hurled abuse at his sister Afshan Azad, who played Padma Patil in the hit films, during a “prolonged and nasty” attack at their Manchester home.
She was punched repeatedly and dragged around by her hair after being overhead talking to her Hindu boyfriend.
Mr Azad, 28, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Manchester Crown Court previously heard how Miss Azad, 22, was branded a “prostitute” and “slag” and was told: “Marry a Muslim or you die.”
The actress fled the family home in Longsight, south Manchester, through a bedroom window after the attack on 21 May 2010.
The actress, who now lives in London, had pleaded with the court not to jail her older brother.
“This is a sentence that is designed to punish you for what you did and also to send out a clear message to others that domestic violence involving circumstances such as have arisen here cannot be tolerated”
Judge Roger Thomas Manchester Crown Court
But Judge Roger Thomas QC, sentencing, said there were no good or proper reasons to suspend his sentence of six months.
“This persistent attack was accompanied by serious and very hurtful abuse and threats,” he told the defendant.
“It must have been a miserable and frightening experience for your sister which, she suggested, lasted for about three hours or so.
“The background to this offence lies in the concern that you, and perhaps other family members, had about Afshan’s relationship with a young man who was not of the Islamic faith.”
He added: “This is a sentence that is designed to punish you for what you did and also to send out a clear message to others that domestic violence involving circumstances such as have arisen here cannot be tolerated.”
Miss Azad’s character, a witch in the same year as Harry Potter at Hogwarts, first appeared in Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire.
She also features in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final film of the saga, which is being released in two parts.
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