Belgium: Muslims Tortured Woman to Death to "Exorcise" Her

Six Muslims have just been sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, although some received only suspended sentences, for having tortured Latifa Hachmi, a 23-tear-old woman, to death in Brussels in 2004. They believed the woman's body was inhabited by demons and were attempting to perform a rite of exorcism, known as "Roqya" in Morocco where it originated. The exorcism rites, which were led by Sheikh Abdelkrim Aznagui and the woman's husband, were performed repeatedly throughout the month of June 2004.

During this time, the woman was cut off from the outside world and given almost no food. In each session, she had her head forcibly immersed in a bathtub and was strangled and struck repeatedly with a "sacred rod" which, in reality, was the handle of a toilet plunger on which the "99 names of Allah" had been inscribed. (...)