Cops In Indonesia Interrogated A Thief By Wrapping A Live Snake Around His Neck Until He Confessed How Many Phones He Had Stolen

Reuters- Indonesian police have apologised and pledged disciplinary action after officers draped a live snake around the neck of a suspect to persuade him to confess during an interrogation session in the easternmost area of Papua. A video circulated online shows a man being questioned about stolen mobile phones seated with his hands tethered behind his back yelling in distress as a snake is pushed towards his face by an officer. The man, who can been seen writhing on the ground for much of the time is asked by an officer, “How may times have you stolen mobile phones?” The suspect later responds by saying, “Only two times.”

During the video, a voice can be heard ordering the man to open his eyes and at one stage threatens to put the snake into his mouth and under his trousers. In a statement, Jayawijaya police chief Tonny Ananda Swadaya issued an apology, saying, “The investigator was not professional in doing his job”.

Veronica Koman, a human rights lawyer focused on Papua, said by text message that using a snake in this way represented torture and was not a one-off incident in the area.

Whoa. Whoa that’s weird. Really fucking weird. But likely pretty fucking efficiennnnnnt. Look, I am not going to pretend I am know much about human rights or the criminal justice system of Indonesia. But what I do know is the guy in that video was telling the truth and is NEVER going to steal mobile phones again. You don’t make sounds that only Chris Tucker in Rush Hour could make while being questioned unless you have been traumatized pretty deeply and I don’t blame the guy at all. I don’t even approach the reptile section of my local pet store just because I don’t trust anything with cold blood running through its veins. It doesn’t matter if that snake is toothless, venomless, and doesn’t know how to crush a man’s throat boa constrictor style. Weaponzing man’s inherent fear of a creature that is so creepy even a badass like Indiana Jones is scared of them because a couple of phones went missing seems extreme.

Then again, I guess it depends what type of phones we are talking here. I don’t know how up with the times Indonesia is, but if this dude got caught stealing a couple of old ass RAZRs, throwing a python in his face is way too much. That’s a garter snake crime, absolute max. If we are talking some Android phones that came out a couple of years ago, you can maybe convince me that some really scary looking snake that is definitely not venomous is the way to go. But if this dude was swiping iPhones that require loans to be taken out and are the same prices as Macbooks, some would say he deserves to be tied up in the ropes like Macho Man and given the Jake The Snake treatment, which is one of the harshest things you can do to someone in my eyes since I had nightmares about this video for months after it happened.

And that was today in Indonesian Justice.