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Jakarta Post

Jessica mentally fit, says expert

Police officers escort murder suspect Jessica Kumala Wongso after questioning her on Jan

Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, February 3, 2016

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Jessica mentally fit, says expert Police officers escort murder suspect Jessica Kumala Wongso after questioning her on Jan. 30 at the Jakarta Police headquarters. Jakarta Police named Jessica a suspect in a case involving cyanide-tainted coffee that killed her friend Wayan Mirna Salihin. (Tempo/Dhemas Reviyanto) (Tempo/Dhemas Reviyanto)

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span class="inline inline-center">Police officers escort murder suspect Jessica Kumala Wongso after questioning her on Jan. 30 at the Jakarta Police headquarters. Jakarta Police named Jessica a suspect in a case involving cyanide-tainted coffee that killed her friend Wayan Mirna Salihin. (Tempo/Dhemas Reviyanto)

Murder suspect Jessica Kumala Wongso is of healthy mind and does not have a mental disorder, a psychologist who examined Jessica's mental state said on Wednesday.

University of Indonesia psychologist Sarlito Wirawan went to the Jakarta Police headquarters on Wednesday to examine Jessica at investigators' request.

After being examined, Jessica was deemed calm and mentally healthy. No other details of the examination were announced.

Still, a calm manner did not guarantee that Jessica was not capable of murder, Sarlito said. He went on to explain that a number of murderers had appeared calm during investigations. He mentioned Baekhuni, aka Babe, a serial killer and pedophile who was declared guilty of murdering 14 street children, dismembering some of them. He was sentenced to death in December 2010.

The majority of criminals were considered to be of sound mind, Sarlito told journalists at Jakarta Police headquarters on Wednesday after the examination.

This was the first time he was summoned by the police to examine Jessica after she was named a suspect. The police consulted Sarlito, forensic psychiatrists, a hypnotherapist and criminal experts as part of the investigation into Mirna's death.

The test will only serve to support the investigation and will not be used as evidence in court, Sarlito said.

Mirna died after drinking a cyanide-tainted coffee in Olivier restaurant in Grand Indonesia on Jan. 6.

The police named Jessica, who was with Mirna at the restaurant, a suspect on Jan. 30. (rin)(+)

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