BURAIDAH: The Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution has decided to detain a 50-year-old man for three months in the wake of accusations that he killed a girl with electric shocks during a holy Ruqya treatment in Qassim. The girl's family, who refused to comment about the incident, turned to the man about three months ago to treat her for depression, but he treated her with electric shocks, according to sources. Sources close to the Raqi said he had recently started using electric shocks in combination with Qur'anic recitations in his treatment and never asked for money for his services. For some time, the Raqi had only used recitations of the Qur'an and was able to treat many cases, the sources said. In treating the girl, the man, a state employee, conducted the Ruqya sessions by reciting the Qur'an while using electric shocks in a mosque, sources said. The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Hai'a, in Qassim has closely supervised the man, said Abdullah Al-Mansour, a Hai'a spokesman. Hai'a staff had not noticed any objectionable behavior during his regular Ruqya sessions, Al-Mansour said. A committee of the region's Emirate, the Hai'a, police and the Islamic Affairs Office supervises the work of men involved in Ruqya treatment and emphasizes that only recitation of the holy Qur'an is allowed, he said. The committee has held many men performing Ruqya because of religious, security, and moral violations, the spokesman said. Some Raqis have beaten their patients because of their belief that doing so drives jinn from their bodies and others have used the treatment as a way to touch women, he added. If violations are spotted, the Raqi is immediately suspended and his place to perform Ruqya is closed down, he said.
