Malaysian girl escapes exorcism torture

By Julia Yeow  

Kuala Lumpur (dpa) – A Malaysian girl escaped from being tortured

 for a month in an exorcism rite, a news report said Wednesday.

    The 10-year-old girl escaped her torturer by picking the locks on

 the chains around her feet and is being treated in hospital for burn

 marks on both hands, bruises on her face, swollen wrists and

 fractured ribs.

    Shortly after she was admitted, police detained a relative with

 whom she had been living in the southern state of Johor, the New

 Straits Times reported.

    Police said the girl, who has been in the care of the suspect

 since her father died, was believed to have been subjected to daily

 torture, supposedly to rid her of bad luck.

    The suspect is believed to have beaten, burnt and starved her for

 about a month, after a medium said the girl was an unlucky omen, the

 report said.

    Police have remanded the suspect for investigations, pending the

 victim’s medical report.

    In June, a Malaysian court sentenced a man to death for causing

 the death of a 3-year-old girl during an exorcism ritual gone wrong.