Woman 'beaten to death with sticks by religious group trying to exorcise demons from her body'

A woman was effectively beaten to death with sticks by a religious team trying to exorcise demons from her body.

Local reports in Moroccan say the woman was 'possessed by Satan', and it was decided the best way to deal with the problem was to yell religious passages at her while hitting her with the sticks.

A report by the Morocco World News said the woman’s relatives were convinced she was “possessed by the devil”, so she took the extraordinary decision to call in an exorcist.

The shocking incident took place last Friday, but the woman finally died after what the newspaper called continuous sessions of exorcism performed by a “fqih” (exorcist) in Douar Beni Salah in the Tetouan region of Morocco.

The paper said the mentally ill woman in her 40s and a mother of eight, decided to seek the help of an exorcist in her town.

Their report says: “Sadly, the poor woman could not withstand the continuous sessions of torture by the exorcist – believed to expel jinns (demons) from the allegedly possessed woman.

“To cast out the evil spirit from her body, the Fqih loudly recited incantations and passages from the Koran, the holy book of Islam.

"With the help of four of his assistants, the Fqih hit her with a stick all over her body in order to “force the evil spirit” to leave her.

“The fqih and his assistants were reportedly arrested and an investigation is underway to determine the circumstances of the death.”