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Jessica breaks her silence, denies poisoning accusation
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Murder defendant Jessica Kumala Wongso heads to her seat during her trial at the Central Jakarta District Court on Sept. 22. (Antara Photo/Rosa Panggabean)
F
rom her seat, Jessica Kumala Wongso listened to the prosecution team fire an endless number of accusations and questions at her. However, on this day the murder defendant calmly maintained that she had nothing to do with her friend’s death.
During Wednesday’s hearing in a packed courtroom at the Central Jakarta District Court, Jessica denied the charge that she had poisoned her friend, Mirna Salihin.
“No, I didn’t do that,” Jessica asserted, answering a question from prosecutor Wahyu Oktaviandi about whether she had laced Mirna’s Vietnamese iced coffee with sodium cyanide.
“I see from the CCTV footage that there was something moved on your table, what was that? Did you tremble at that moment,” Wahyu asked rapidly.
“Please try to understand my position at that time, people have decided that I was the one who killed Mirna since I ordered the coffee,” Jessica said in a shaky voice.
Jessica portrayed herself as a good friend who kept in touch with Mirna, despite their living on two different continents, and said they occasionally shared secrets with each other.
“It happened very fast, from the time Mirna and Hani arrived at the restaurant to the moment Mirna took a sip of the coffee and collapsed on the floor. It happened very fast and I cannot remember the details,” Jessica said softly when pressed to describe the incident in detail.
If found guilty, Jessica could face a maximum sentence of the death penalty as she is being charged with premeditated murder. Mirna died shortly after drinking an allegedly cyanide-laced coffee during the friends’ gathering at an upscale Central Jakarta restaurant on Jan. 6.
For the last two months experts and witnesses have been presented by both prosecution and defense teams to shed light on the allegations. Some psychologists said Jessica was a very calm and confident woman who was able to answer any question even though she was under severe pressure as a murder defendant. Other experts, presented by the prosecution team, have portrayed her as cold-blooded.
Testifying for the first time in the case that has made her the country’s most famous murder defendant, Jessica refuted the testimony of Mirna’s father and husband, who said they did not really know her. Jessica claimed Mirna and her had been good friends since they met at a college in Australia back in 2007.
Jessica, dressed in a long, white shirt and black trousers, described her friendly relationship with the victim while they were in Australia, saying they had gone to restaurants with other Indonesian students and Mirna had shared private parts of her life with her.
“When she was going to get married, she came to Australia and told me that she had started to have doubts as her boyfriend was a very quiet person,” she told the panel of judges when Prosecutor Shandy Handika pressed her on how close they were.
Holding the microphone with her left hand and gesturing with her right as she talked, Jessica showed no signs of losing her temper when prosecutors repeatedly accused her of making inconsistent statements.
She said that she had made inconsistent statements because during her interrogation she was under pressure by police officers who would not take “I don’t know” as an answer.
