A thug who kicked and stomped a helpless pet cat to death after six minutes of agonising torture has been allowed to walk free by judges in Turkey.

Sickening CCTV footage seen by the court shows Ibrahim Keloglan chasing the cat around a hallway as he brutally attacked the terrified puss without mercy.

The footage, from an Istanbul apartment block lobby in the early hours of New Year’s Day, opens with the terrified moggie running from a lift through an emergency exit door.

Keloglan runs after it, stopping to close the door carefully making sure the trapped puss has no way out of the lobby.

As he stamps on and kicks the cat it’s desperate to escape.

At one point Keloglan boots the defenceless animal so hard it flies through the air halfway down the lobby.

It ends before cruel Keloglan finally beats it to death but the Kucukcekmece 16th Criminal Court of First Instance in Istanbul were told how it died in agony.

Cowardly Keloglan had told the court he was acting in self-defence as the cat had attacked him first.

Judges first jailed him for 18 months for animal abuse but then reduced his sentence to 15 months behind bars for his ‘good behaviour’, local media reported on 12th February.

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Finally, they suspended his entire sentence for five years, meaning he won’t spend a day in prison if he stays out of trouble.

After the sentencing, social media users launched a campaign demanding Keloglan’s arrest.

One said: “In the afterlife, the roles will change and that cat will get its due in exactly the same way as you killed it.”

Another named as ‘Cemal Kose’ said: “The foot he kicked should be amputated.”

Another said: “They are the mute servants of God, how did you kill that cat? I believe that you will suffer in this world what he suffered, my Lord will not let you get away with it.”

And a third said: “Those who give good conduct discounts to such murderers have no sense of compassion.”