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Jessica frequently lied during trial: Prosecutors
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Murder defendant Jessica Kumala Wongso testifies in the murder trial of Wayan Mirna Salihin at the Central Jakarta District Court on Sept. 28. (Antara Photo/Rosa Panggabean)
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essica Kumala Wongso, who stands accused of killing her friend Wayan Mirna Salihin, frequently made false statements during the trial, prosecutors have claimed.
Prosecutor Maylany told the judges during a hearing at the Central Jakarta District Court on Monday that, for example, Jessica had complained about conditions at the Jakarta Police detention center, which she had said was dirty and inhuman.
In fact, she said, Jessica had demanded a special detention center. “It is the most luxurious room for a detainee,” said Maylany in response to the defense statement stated by Jessica and her lawyers at a hearing last week, as reported by kompas.com.
Maylany also claimed that in one session Jessica had made statements contradicting those she had made earlier, during a reconstruction of events at the crime scene. “The investigators have allowed Jessica to show her own version during the reconstruction, but she denied her own version of the reconstruction during the trial, for unclear reasons,” said Maylany.
Maylany also criticized Jessica’s lawyers, saying that of 4,000 pages of defense documents read last week, only 282 pages touched on the substance of the case, while the rest was only transcripts of the trial.
“The lawyers look like laymen, not lawyers who know about law. It took the lawyers two days to read their defense,” Maylany added.
Jessica has been accused of putting a deadly dose of cyanide into a coffee consumed by Mirna when they shared a table at Olivier café in Central Jakarta on Jan. 6.
Prosecutors have demanded a 20-year prison sentence for Jessica. (bbn)
