The Serbian Orthodox Church has some rather unorthodox ideas about how to treat drug abusers.

BELGRADE, May 23 (Reuters) - The Serbian Orthodox Church ordered the closure on Saturday of a treatment centre for drug abusers after a video showed a patient being beaten with a shovel, punched and kicked as part of supposed treatment.

The Holy Synod, the church’s top body, asked Bishop Artemije, the head of the local diocese, to order an immediate shutdown of the facility and “launch proceedings against those responsible in line with church’s laws and regulations.”

A video posted on the website of Belgrade’s Vreme weekly showed one of the centre’s employees repeatedly beating a man with a shovel, kicking him and hitting him with a knuckleduster — brass knuckles — in the face inside a room decorated with icons.

The video also shows another two men holding the victim.

A man with the shovel hits the victim several times and he screams in pain. The victim is then positioned upright and repeatedly hit karate style in the head, elbow and feet with brass knuckles. The victim, whose head hits religious icons on the wall during the beating, eventually falls unconscious.

Here’s the video, but be warned, it’s pretty brutal stuff.

blip.tv