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No need for witnesses to find defendant guilty, judge insists
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Murder suspect Jessica Kumala Wongso is escorted into a court room at the Central Jakarta District Court on July 21. She is accused of killing Wayan Mirna Salihin on Jan. 6. (Antara Foto/Rivan Awal Linnga)
T
he presiding judge at the Central Jakarta District Court said on Wednesday that a panel of judges could hand down a guilty verdict even if no witness saw the crime a defendant is charged with.
Speaking during the trial of murder suspect Jessica Kumala Wongso, who stands accused of killing her friend Wayan Mirna Salihin on Jan. 6, Binsar Gultom said a witness-less crime receiving a guilty verdict had a precedent in 2015, when he presided over a case of a murder that had gone unwitnessed, in Jasinga, Bogor, West Java.
The case involved the murder of a 12-year-old child, he added.
“In the Jasinga murder case, no one saw the convict kill the victim. However, we sentenced him to life in prison,” Binsar said, adding, however, that he was as yet unable to reach a verdict in the trial of Jessica.
Binsar said it would not be a problem if there were no direct witnesses who saw anyone place anything in Mirna’s coffee, which was laced with cyanide.
Mirna died on Jan. 6 after drinking the coffee at Olivier café in Central Jakarta , sharing a table with Jessica and another friend, Juwita Boon alias Hani.
Meanwhile, Olivier café manager Devi appeared in a hearing on Wednesday. She stressed that the café had nothing to do with the death of Mirna. Devi, who tasted the ‘deadly’ Vietnamese coffee after Mirna went into convulsions, also witnessed the irregularity of the coffee.
“I took a drop of coffee with the straw and put it on my tongue. It tasted bitter and burning,” she said. (bbn)
