Madrid - A Spanish regional court on Wednesday confirmed a controversial ruling that cleared five men of gang-raping a young woman during Pamplona's San Fermin festival in the so-called "Wolf Pack" case, which caused protests across Spain.

The Navarra court confirmed a nine-year prison sentence for the men, who joked about the 2016 incident afterwards on a Whatsapp group called "The Wolf Pack", for the lesser crime of sexual assault.

The incident, which has attracted international attention in the wake of the #MeToo movement, occurred during the annual San Fermin bull-running festival in Pamplona, the capital of Navarra.

The ruling, which can now be appealed in Spain's Supreme Court, saw the men released on bail in June on a legal technicality which says that no one can be held for more than two years without a definitive sentence being handed down.

All five men, who include a former policeman and a former soldier, paid 6 000 euros (R93 600) in bail though their release led to further protests and concern across the political spectrum with pledges to revise the penal system's response to such charges.