Suspended sentence for keeping a cat at home

According to Mash Telegram , a court in Siberia handed down a suspended sentence to a defendant in a criminal case, considering cat ownership as one of the mitigating circumstances. This is believed to be the first such decision made in Russia.

Specifically, the 48-year-old defendant from Kemerovo is charged with hooliganism and illegal possession of a firearm for assaulting another person while intoxicated in September. According to reports, he also threatened the victim with the gun.

The suspect was subsequently arrested by the police, cooperated with the investigation, pleaded guilty, and eventually appeared in court. The judge convicted him of all charges, some of which carried a maximum sentence of up to five years behind bars.

However, the court gave the man a suspended sentence based on several mitigating circumstances, including poor health, cooperation with law enforcement, and owning a cat.

According to local media, owning cats has never been considered a mitigating circumstance in Russian criminal law, and defendants can only expect a certain degree of leniency from judges in cases involving children or caring for relatives.

According to RT, the court has not yet commented on this decision.

In another bizarre case, Russian police once arrested a drug dealer in the city of Nizhny Tagil, Urals, who had hidden a large quantity of methamphetamine in the clothing of a cat she was carrying, pretending it was a child.

"To avoid suspicion, she pretended to be a mother walking with her daughter and her newborn baby. However, inside the baby clothes the suspects were carrying was a cat," said Russian Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk.

During the search, police seized five packages of methamphetamine, an illegal stimulant. According to investigators, the suspect obtained the drugs on the instructions of an anonymous online order, then divided them into smaller packages for distribution to end users. She had made 12 payments before being arrested.

Further evidence was discovered at the woman's rented apartment, including a digital scale, drug containers, and other illegal substances. According to Russian authorities, a total of 170 grams of drugs were seized during the search – an amount considered "significant" under Russian law, potentially leading to a prison sentence of 8 to 15 years.

Phuong Anh (Source: RT)

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