15 months’ jail for strangling cat and hanging it out

Food stall worker Al Azri Norhisham told court the cat had scratched and bitten him.

KUALA LUMPUR: A man whose act of strangling a cat and then hanging the animal went viral on social media, was sentenced to 15 months in prison by the Sessions Court here today.

Twenty-eight-year-old Al Azri Norhisham’s cruelty was caught on his neighbour’s closed-circuit television camera.

The food stall worker was accused of strangling the male cat named Jebon with a rafia string and then hanging it from a staircase in front of his neighbour’s home at an apartment block in Wangsa Maju, Setapak, on June 10 at 1.30pm.

Jebon was owned by a resident who lived in the area.

Judge Rohatul Akmar Abdullah meted out the sentence, which takes effect today, after Azri pleaded guilty to a charge of causing pain or suffering under the Animal Welfare Act 2015, which carries a maximum sentence of a RM100,000 fine or three years’ jail or both.

Deputy public prosecutor Siti Hajar Mohd Ashif requested the court for a deterrent sentence in view of the immense cruelty committed by the accused against a defenceless animal.

She said Azri’s plea that he was scratched and bitten by the cat was unacceptable.

Azri was unrepresented. - FMT