Turkish man sentenced to jail for ‘provoking’ his cat to scratch a woman

SAMSUN

A shopkeeper in northern Turkey has been sentenced to jail after his cat scratched a female customer’s face during a heated argument. 

Local media reported on Feb. 1 about the three-year-long court case in the Samsun province where Ahmet Dilaver has been an electronics shop salesman for the past 22 years.

According to the reports, the incident happened in January 2016 when a female customer visited Dilaver’s shop to get back the tablet computer that she had given the man for repair weeks earlier.

The woman was angry, according to Dilaver, when she was told that the tablet was still not delivered to the shop from the repair service in Istanbul.

“One of the stray cats that we petted was also in the shop. When the cat saw the woman shouting at me, he started to move toward her. She was suddenly even angrier. She kicked the cat. The cat, while flying in the air, scratched her face in response,” Dilaver told journalists.

The minor injury led to a criminal charge against Dilaver, who was later convicted and sentenced to more than two months in prison for “reckless injury.”

An appeals court upheld the ruling on Jan. 28, concluding that Dilaver should be held responsible from the injury, as the "assaillant" was a stray cat but it has been regularly visiting the man's shop. The court also converted the jail sentence into a 3,000 Turkish Lira fine.

“I didn’t provoke the cat against the woman. It was the woman who provoked him. Why do they punish me?” the man said.