Tel Aviv, June 19 (ANI): A Jewish court has reportedly pronounced a death sentence by stoning for a dog because they believed it was the reincarnation of a secular lawyer who they had cursed for insulting jews.

The rabbinical court reportedly passed the sentence after the large dog wandered into a court in Mea Shearim neighbourhood of Jerusalem and frightened the judges.

When the dog refused to leave, one of the judges allegedly declared the lawyer's spirit must have moved into the dog as punishment, and sentenced it to death by stoning - at the hands of local children, The Daily Mail reports.

'It was ordered... as an appropriate way to "get back at" the spirit which entered the poor dog.' A court manager told the Israeli daily Yediot Aharanot.

The dog managed to escape, but an animal rights organisation, Let Animals Live, lodged a police complaint against the head of the court. (ANI)