SHAH ALAM, Malaysia (AP) - A Malaysian court charged 12 Muslims with criminal offenses Wednesday for parading a severed cow head to protest the construction of a Hindu temple in a case that stoked religious tensions in this multiethnic country.

The 12 were among a large group of people who had marched from a mosque in Shah Alam, the capital of Selangor state, to the state chief minister’s office on Aug. 28 with the bloodied cow head. The cow is the most sacred animal in Hinduism.

They stopped at the gates of the office where they stomped and spat on the head after listening to fiery speeches by their leader.

Their actions were recorded on video, and the footage was uploaded onto the Internet.

Twelve of the protesters were charged with illegal assembly and six of them were also charged with sedition, which is punishable by up to three years in jail and a fine. Illegal assembly is punishable by one year in jail and a fine.

Sedition is defined as promoting ill will and hostility between different races.

The Shah Alam Sessions Court freed all 12 on bail. No date has been set for the trial, but the case will be heard again on Oct. 21.

The cow head protest deeply offended Hindus and stoked tensions among Malaysia’s main ethnic groups - the Malay Muslim majority and Chinese and Indian minorities. Indians are mostly Hindus.