An Islamic cleric accused of conducting a marriage between a man and a child bride is in Sydney's Villawood detention centre after his visa sponsorship was revoked.
Pakistani Riaz Tasawar, 35, was last week arrested and charged with solemnisation of a marriage by an unauthorised person and had been on bail.
With his visa no longer sponsored by a Newcastle mosque he is now in the custody of the Immigration Department at Villawood.
The under-age marriage was allegedly between a 12-year-old girl and a 26-year-old man in NSW's Hunter region in 2013.
Police said the man became involved in an ongoing sexual relationship with the girl and had been charged with 25 counts of sexual intercourse with a child between 10 and 14 years of age.
The 61-year-old father of the girl has also been charged with procuring a child for unlawful sexual activity and being an accessory before the fact to sexual intercourse with a person between 10 and 14 years of age.
The Islamic Centre of Newcastle, the mosque where Tasawar was the resident imam, last week dismissed him and severed ties.
The centre's president Yunus Kara said the mosque's management had decided to withdraw its sponsorship visa for the Pakistani cleric.
He said the mosque and the Islamic community were shocked by the news of the marriage, which he said was done "very secretively" and without the knowledge of the centre's management.
NSW Police said Tasawar will appear in Parramatta Local Court on March 4.
