Indonesian police apologise after video emerges of them terrorising suspect with snake

Wow.

Indonesian police have admitted their officers terrorised a man with a snake after a video of the incident circulated online. The video shows the man screaming with terror while the interrogator laughs. Police revealed that the incident happened recently, during a crackdown on petty crime in Jayawijaya district, but they said the snake was not venomous and that they hadn’t resorted to beating the man, who was suspected of theft. The video showed the suspect in handcuffs, with a snake wrapped around his neck and waist. A police officer was seen pushing the snake’s head into the man’s face.

Human rights lawyer Veronica Koman said on Sunday that the interrogation methods were torture and violated police policies as well as several laws and stated that this was only the latest of several reports of police using this method.

Papua province’s police spokesman said the officers involved are being questioned by an internal affairs division of the national police.

"We apologise for the incident,” he told AP. “Institutionally we do not recognise such an unprofessional method of interrogation, and we guarantee that such an inhuman method will not happen again in the future."