Story By:  Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency:  Newsflash

A court in Egypt has given a teaching assistant six months in prison for killing 60 lab mice to ruin a female student’s master’s thesis.

Qena Criminal Court sentenced the teaching assistant at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of South Valley University in Qena to six months in prison.

It also slapped him with a fine of EGP 50 (GBP 2) after it found he had killed 60 lab mice to sabotage a female student’s master’s thesis.

Local media reported that he carried out the act in “revenge” against the female student, though it is not clear what for.

It is not clear when the sentence was given, but local media first reported it in the early hours of Monday, 27th June. The defendant’s name was not reported.

South Valley University also took action, suspending the teaching assistant from his work.

Security services in Qena Governorate first found out about the sick crime after they received a report from complainant ‘Hajar M.’ against the teaching assistant.

The report accused him of placing a toxic substance in the laboratory mice’s water, resulting in their deaths, to ruin the research experiment.

Investigations concluded that the complainant’s version of events was correct.

Article 45 of the Egyptian Constitution commits to “the prevention of cruelty to animals”.

But despite the recent sentence, there are no strict laws against animal cruelty in Egypt and many instances go unnoticed.