Egypt: Son kills mum to ward off jinn

Cairo: A young Egyptian killed his mother in Cairo allegedly to dispel a jinn, local media reported.

The suspect strangled the woman to death while she was fixing a suhour (pre-dawn) meal in the fasting month of Ramadan in their house in the populous area of Ein Shams, reports said.

Neighbours reported the incident to the police who arrested the son, who is reportedly psychologically ill.

He admitted to killing his mother, in her 50s, purportedly to eliminate a jinn he used to see on her face.

The son, whose age was not given, claimed to have been haunted by a jinn and sought to get rid of it by killing his mother. “I killed her and killed the jinn that I used to see,” he was quoted as saying as he sat crying next to the mom’s dead body.

Local prosecutors permitted the burial of the dead woman as the suspect is kept in police custody pending further interrogation.