The Democratic Republic of Congo's deputy justice minister Claude Nyamugabo has ordered police to release a dozen goats being held in a Kinshasa jail on a "being sold illegally by the roadside" rap.

An "astonished" Nyamugabo discovered the caprine perps during a routine visit. According to the BBC, they were due to stand trial with their owners - also languishing in chokey - but have now been spared the ordeal of an appearance before the beak.

In an beautiful piece of understatement, Nyamugabo said that "many police had serious gaps in their knowledge". He concluded that some retraining was certainly in order.

The fate of the caged goatherds whose dodgy roadside dealings provoked their animals' detention is unrecorded. ®

Further selected goat-based reading

• Swedes develop fireproof goat (3 January 2007)
• Speeding driver blames absence of goats (7 September 2006)
• Welshman in 12 pint cider binge goat death ride (10 August 2006)
• NSFW Goat sex man in caprine shotgun wedding (28 February 2006)
• Chef has sex with goat (7 February 2002)