FRANKFURT, Germany – Five South Koreans have gone on trial in a German court, charged with murder over the death of a relative in an exorcism ritual at a Frankfurt hotel last year.
READ MORE: German prosecutors say family killed South Korean woman in apparent exorcism
The defendants in the trial that opened Monday at the Frankfurt state court range in age between 16 and 44. They include the son of the 41-year-old woman who died, news agency dpa reported.
Police discovered the victim’s body in a hotel room in December after the suspects called a priest when it became apparent the victim had died. Prosecutors have said that they wanted to expel a “demon” they believed had possessed the woman, and that she died of asphyxiation as a result of “massive chest compression and violence to her neck.”
The trial is scheduled to last until mid-January.