DUSHANBE. Nov 15 (Interfax) - An Islamic clergymen was been detained in Tajikistan on suspicion of killing a young man during a ritual to exorcise evil spirits, the Tajik Interior Ministry said in a press release on Friday.
"A resident of the Panj district [located 200 kilometers south of the Tajik capital Dushanbe], Abdulvokhid Kodirov, a mullah who specializes in "exorcising Jinns" [evil spirits in Islam] was detained on suspicion of murdering the district's 19-year-old resident, who suffered from a mental disorder," the ministry said.
The mullah beat his "patient" with seven wooden rods and then made several incisions with a knife on the young man's body, including under his tongue, investigators said.
Doctors have concluded that the man died as a result of the beating and severe blood loss.
It is the second criminal investigation opened against a clergyman in Tajikistan in recent months.
At the end of October, a Dushanbe court convicted a mullah of sexually abusing a young woman and sentenced him to seven years in prison and a large fine.
In Tajikistan, where education standards continue to fall, people shun modern medicine, going instead to traditional healers, most of whom belong to the clergy.