A devout Muslim convicted of child cruelty for encouraging two boys to beat themselves in a religious ceremony yesterday walked free from court.

A devout Muslim convicted of child cruelty for encouraging two boys to beat themselves in a religious ceremony yesterday walked free from court.

Syed Mustafa Zaidi was given a 26-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.

The 44-year-old was also prohibited from allowing or encouraging anyone under the age of 16 to beat themselves during the next 12 months.

Judge Robert Atherton, at Manchester Crown Court, told him: "I reject the suggestion that they were forced to participate, although I consider it likely that the fervour of events is also likely to have affected their wish to participate."

Zaidi was found guilty of two counts of child cruelty in a British legal first last month.

The boys, aged 13 and 15, were forced to beat themselves with a zanjeer zani, an implement containing five curved blades, during a ceremony to commemorate the death of a Shia Muslim spiritual leader.

The boys both received multiple lacerations to their backs, mainly superficial, with several deeper cuts.

Zaidi, of Station Road, Eccles, Salford, also flogged himself during the ceremony at a community centre in Manchester, on January 19.

The boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted they wanted to beat themselves, but not under duress and not using Zaidi's zanjeer zani.

Both boys also admitted they had flogged themselves with a smaller zanjeer zani from the age of six in Pakistan.

A 14-year-old boy, who was 13 at the time, said Zaidi told them both: "Start doing it, start doing it. "He told the jury: "We said we don't want to do it'."

The boy said he saw Zaidi flogging himself with the zanjeer zani before handing it to the 15-year-old boy.

He said Zaidi "kept pressuring him" and "make him do the knife thing".

A 20-minute film of the traditional Ashura ceremony, broadcast on satellite television, showed Zaidi flagellating himself until his back was bloody and cut.

Participants at the event flogged themselves to commemorate the death of Husayn, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.

Zaidi, a warehouse supervisor, admitted he asked the boys if they wanted to beat themselves and that he allowed them to use his zanjeer zani.

The jury heard that at a meeting two days before the ceremony, it was made clear to Zaidi that under-16s were not permitted to flog themselves.