Warsaw - A Polish court on Friday sentenced three brothers in connection with a lynching in the east of the country in 2005, Polish media reported.

Neighbours in July 2005 attacked Jozef C, a repeat offender who had wandered the countryside threatening people with a machete.

The residents said they killed Jozef C because officers had not responded to their earlier pleas to send a police car.

The three brothers were sentenced to four years in prison after the court ruled they had dealt the fatal blows in the lynching. (dpa)