Southampton’S Medina Mosque has been plunged into a new £3.3m legal battle.

It comes just a over a year since a judge settled a bitter long-running dispute over its ownership.

Mohammed Aslam, who was instrumental in getting the mosque built, claims he and other family creditors are owed £3.3m as building contractors.

Southampton City Council was forced to get a High Court ruling on which of the two rival factions of the Muslim community had the right to the building’s freehold more than ten years after the first brick was laid.

Mr Aslam has now filed a claim against three of his fellow original trustees who now run the St Mary’s mosque after the court ruled in their favour.

He said the original trustees agreed that he and others who funded the mosque would be repaid once it was completed and refinanced.

But mosque general secretary Rashid Brora branded Mr Aslam’s claim “completely frivolous”

and said it would be fully defended.

Mr Brora said the mosque was funded through public donations, including some from Mr Aslam and his family, and he had failed to justify the money he claims he was owed. He said he was unaware of any repayment agreement. He added an appeal for donations from worshippers had been launched to fund a legal defence.

“It’s sad that money that might otherwise have been given for much needed improvements to the mosque will need to go in defending the claim,” he said.

Mr Brora said mosque leaders were now considering whether or not to pursue Mr Aslam for costs of up to £100,000 awarded by the High Court.

The council went to court after the trustees to a 1997 building agreement, under which the council sold the Compton’s Walk mosque plot for a quarter of its value, just £56,000, fell out.

Mr Justice Davis finally ruled that the Southampton Medina Mosque Trust Ltd (SMMTL), which has run the mosque since 2002, was entitled to own and manage it.

Mr Aslam said his claim was the “natural route to go” following the ruling, and was based on his share of funding towards the cost of construction, based on present day values.

“The claim has not been made against the company but against the people who made the agreement with me to build and deliver the mosque. The company came about after the mosque was built,” he said.

“The dispute is not going to go away until this matter is resolved. It has ruined my life and other members of my family for something we have done for the Muslim community.”