A couple have been charged with child abuse after they allegedly attempted to exorcise their 10-year-old daughter, who they thought was a witch.
The pair, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, were charged on Friday in Boraas, in the west of Sweden.
Daniel Larson, a prosecutor, said the couple ‘think their daughter is a witch and reject the accusation’ of abuse, according to the Telegraph.
They are alleged to have committed three acts of abuse committed between February 2007 and February 2008, including forcing her to drink a mixture of cleaning fluid and her own urine.
They were also accused of beating her unconscious.
The child, who claims she is not biologically related to her parents, was taken into foster care in 2008 after concerns she was being badly treated at home.
Her teachers were worried about her dirty clothes, and thought she was being treated differently to her brothers and sisters.
Mr Larson said it was only after she had been removed from her parents that she felt safe enough to talk about the experience.
The local daily Boraas Tidning has reported online that in 2008, the parents had applied to the state for money for take her back to DR Congo for an exorcism, although the application was turned down.
The trial will be held in the next few months.