Police sorry after threatening ‘thief’ with huge snake to get him to confess.

Police have said sorry after officers pushed a snake towards an alleged ‘thief’ while his hands were tied behind his back – in an effort to make him confess. The officers also threatened to put the snake down the terrified man’s trousers in a disturbing video filmed in Papua, Indonesia. The tied man writhes on the ground as officers ask, ‘How many times have you stolen mobile phones?’

He says, ‘Only two times,’ as officers tell him to open his eyes. In a statement, Jayawijaya police chief Tonny Ananda Swadaya issued an apology, saying, ‘The investigator was not professional in doing his job.

Swadaya added that the officers had been acting on their own initiative to try get a confession, saying the snake was non-venomous and tame. ‘We have taken stern action against the personnel,’ he said, adding the officers themselves had not physically attacked the man.



Reports of human rights abuses by security forces often emerge from Papua, where a separatist movement has simmered for decades. The former Dutch colony, the resource-rich western part of New Guinea island, was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticized U.N.-backed referendum in 1969.

Metro.co.uk