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Jakarta Post

Court rejects Jessica'€™s pretrial plea, case goes on

Jakarta Police will press ahead with their probe into Jessica Kumala Wongso in the murder of her friend Wayan Mirna Salihin, after the Central Jakarta District Court rejected her pretrial motion in a hearing on Tuesday

Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, March 2, 2016 Published on Mar. 2, 2016 Published on 2016-03-02T09:23:02+07:00

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J

akarta Police will press ahead with their probe into Jessica Kumala Wongso in the murder of her friend Wayan Mirna Salihin, after the Central Jakarta District Court rejected her pretrial motion in a hearing on Tuesday.

Judge I Wayan Merta said that the police had followed proper legal procedures in naming Jessica a suspect in the murder case and then detaining her during the investigation.

The judge cited the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP), saying that police could make an arrest and detain someone if they believed that the suspect may escape, destroy evidence or repeat their crime.

'€œThe judge disagrees with the petitioner'€™s claim that a suspect should be detained based on the evidence. The judge, therefore, will not look into whether the police had sufficient evidence to detain the suspect ,'€ Wayan said.

Jessica filed a petition with the court to challenge her suspect status and detention, claiming that the police proceeded with her case without sufficient evidence and carried out an improper investigation.

As the pretrial petition has been rejected, the Jakarta Police will march on with their investigation.

Previously, the Jakarta Prosecutor'€™s Office returned Jessica'€™s dossier to the police as it was considered incomplete.

The office'€™s head, Sudung Situmorang, said the investigators had yet to provide material evidence showing the chronology of the cyanide being put into Mirna'€™s coffee.

Jessica, who may face the death penalty for allegedly masterminding Mirna'€™s murder, has been charged under Article 340 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on premeditated murder.

Police general crimes chief Sr. Comr. Krishna Murti, who is leading the investigation, said the police would find additional evidence to support the case.

Commenting on the pretrial decision, Krishna said that it meant the judge believed that the investigation was '€œon the right track'€, and emphasized that more evidence would be submitted to the prosecutor'€™s office in the near future.

'€œThis is not about who is the winner or loser in the case. It is about the law enforcement and our duty to find who is responsible in a criminal case. We will meet the requirements to complete the dossier,'€ Krishna said after the decision was announced.

Jessica, through her lawyer Yudi Wibowo, maintained her innocence, insisting that the police had no solid evidence that she poisoned Mirna.

Yudi said the police did not have a CCTV recording or witnesses that could show or indicate that Jessica laced Mirna'€™s coffee with cyanide.

'€œThe alleged act cannot be proven and Jessica will show up at the trial to prove that,'€ he said.

Mirna died on Jan. 6 after sipping cyanide-laced coffee at an upscale restaurant in Central Jakarta. The coffee was reportedly ordered and paid for by Jessica, who arrived 40 minutes early to meet Mirna and another friend, Hani.

After three weeks of investigation, the police named Jessica a suspect.

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