Four men were each sentenced to three years in jail on Wednesday over the brutal killing of a dog that had attacked some of them, Egyptian judicial sources said.
The dog went for three of the men during a confrontation with its owner last month, people who live near the scene told Reuters. The owner agreed to let them kill his dog, as long as they didn't press charges, the residents added.
Graphic video footage of the killing of the dog in a Cairo street spread online and triggered protests by animal rights groups. The film shows the dog tied to a pole and men striking it with long knives, surrounded by onlookers in a working-class northern neighbourhood of the Egyptian capital.
The three men were charged with violating laws regulating animal slaughter, causing public panic and unlicensed possession of weapons, said the judicial sources.
The owner of the dog was convicted on the same charges and also jailed for three years, the sources added. He did not appear in court and was sentenced in absentia