A Muslim cleric has been sentenced to five years in prison for killing a pig in a mosque after three witnesses told the court that they saw the imam, Sadate Musengimana, beating the pig with a piece of wood, killing it on the spot.

His lawyer says he killed the animal accidentally with a stick when he tried to chase it away from the mosque in the Kayonzo district in the east of the country in February.

“When children shouted out about seeing a pig at the mosque, he stepped out to chase it away with a stick. He beat it and it died, but he had no intention to kill,” his lawyer Yusuf Nsengiyumva said.

The lawyer said he is appealing against such the “harsh sentence”.

Musengimana has been in detention since February when he killed the pig.