Policemen jailed for racist dog attack View more sharing options Shares 59 Chris McGreal Friday 30 November 2001 01.54 GMT Four white South African policemen who ordered their dogs to attack black detainees as part of a "training exercise", and videotaped the results, were jailed for four and five years each yesterday. Judge Willie van der Merwe described the assault on three Mozambicans arrested for entering the country illegally as cowardly, brutal and cruel. "They disregarded the human dignity of the three [victims]," he said. "They laughed and treated it as a joke. The three are clearly emotionally scarred and it was obviously intensely traumatic." The policemen had pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault. Their relatives shouted in anger as the sentences were announced: "They are crazy!"