Tulungagung, E Java (ANTARA) - The Tulungagung district court in East Java sentenced a 23-year-old man to three months' imprisonment for torturing a cat.
The sentence is two months lesser than the public prosecutor had earlier sought, spokesman for the Tulungagung public prosecutor's office, Agung Tri Radityo, stated on Friday.
The case came to light after a footage of cat being tortured went viral on social media.
The trial of cat torture case was held online, with the defendant, identified by his initials as AZI, following the court proceedings from the class II correctional facility in Tulungagung.
AZI was found guilty of violating article 14, paragraph 1 and article 15 of Law No. 1 of 1946 on the penal code.
Based on the law, the public prosecutor demanded that the defendant be sentenced to five months in jail.
The man's polite, cooperative demeanor along with factors including his young age and his pledge to not repeat the misdeed aided in reducing the sentence, while the aspect that worked against him in this case for the sentence was the public uproar created due to his wrong deed, he explained.
AZI has been detained since December 9, 2021, so he still has to serve another 25 days behind bars.
"The defendant has accepted the verdict, while the public prosecutor is considering (to appeal the case to a higher court)," he remarked.
Animal Defender activist Doni Herdaru expressed his disappointment over the trial, as the public prosecutor's demand had not met a sense of justice in the public.
"(The public prosecutor) only demanded five months instead of two years in jail," he stated.
He later compared the case to an animal torture case in Medan, North Sumatra, wherein the defendant was sentenced to two years and six months in jail.
