Dubai:
In a bizarre incident, a Saudi man has kept his son chained in a basement apartment for more than six years because he thinks that the 29-year-old is "possessed by an evil female genie", a media report said.
"When he has fits he has convulsions and his entire body twists and his eyes become completely white. Then the voice of a woman can be heard coming from him," the 'Arab News' quoted the father of Turki as saying.
When Turki first began behaving bizarrely, his father took him to local Muslim clerics to recite the Koran over him. "But most of them became scared when they heard the female voice telling them that she was a royal jinn (genie) and that no one can exorcise her unless Turki dies," his father told the English language Saudi daily.
One cleric advised him to shackle his son's arms and legs in chains and read the Koran to him. "We did this. My son became quiet but is totally unaware of what's happening around him. He is now unable to harm anyone," Turki's father said.
The family lives in the holy city of Mecca and survive on 150 pounds a month from social security.
Turki's father claimed he himself was afflicted by a jinn at the age of nine and suffered for more than four decades until it was exorcised by a cleric. "I used to see a woman who would at times appear very beautiful and at times extremely ugly," he said.
On some occasions she was "surrounded by fire" and on others appeared "with animal limbs".
A Saudi human rights activist Prof Muhammad Al-Suhali, who visited Turki and found him to be in a "semi-coma", said the victim "didn't know what was going on around him. He could not eat, drink or use the toilet without the help of others".
He has called on the Saudi Ministry of Social Affairs to include Turki in its social security programme.
"When he has fits he has convulsions and his entire body twists and his eyes become completely white. Then the voice of a woman can be heard coming from him," the 'Arab News' quoted the father of Turki as saying.
When Turki first began behaving bizarrely, his father took him to local Muslim clerics to recite the Koran over him. "But most of them became scared when they heard the female voice telling them that she was a royal jinn (genie) and that no one can exorcise her unless Turki dies," his father told the English language Saudi daily.
One cleric advised him to shackle his son's arms and legs in chains and read the Koran to him. "We did this. My son became quiet but is totally unaware of what's happening around him. He is now unable to harm anyone," Turki's father said.
The family lives in the holy city of Mecca and survive on 150 pounds a month from social security.
Turki's father claimed he himself was afflicted by a jinn at the age of nine and suffered for more than four decades until it was exorcised by a cleric. "I used to see a woman who would at times appear very beautiful and at times extremely ugly," he said.
On some occasions she was "surrounded by fire" and on others appeared "with animal limbs".
A Saudi human rights activist Prof Muhammad Al-Suhali, who visited Turki and found him to be in a "semi-coma", said the victim "didn't know what was going on around him. He could not eat, drink or use the toilet without the help of others".
He has called on the Saudi Ministry of Social Affairs to include Turki in its social security programme.
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