Germany: 5 SKoreans on trial over woman's exorcism death

A 16-year-old South Korean covers his face in a court in Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, Oct. 10, 2016. He is accused of murder following the death a 41-year-old woman in an apparent exorcism ritual in a room in a Frankfurt hotel. At right his lawyer Thorsten Fuchs. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) (The Associated Press)

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A South Korean woman covers her face in a court in Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, Oct. 10, 2016. She is accused of murder following the death a 41-year-old woman in an apparent exorcism ritual in a room in a Frankfurt hotel. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) (The Associated Press)

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.

The defendants in the trial that opened Monday at the Frankfurt state court range in age between16 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.