A

n unexpected twist has been revealed in the case surrounding murder victim Wayan Mirna Salihin, with the team of lawyers defending Jessica Kumala Wongso, the main suspect in the case, emphasizing the possibility of the involvement of the victim’s husband and a barista from Olivier Restaurant in the murder.

Jessica’s lawyer, Otto Hasibuan, grilled the barista, identified as Rangga Dwi Saputra, at a hearing on Wednesday evening.

He questioned whether Rangga had taken part in the killing in exchange for Rp 140 million (US$10,682) from Mirna’s husband, Arief Soemarko, who may have ordered the barista to poison Mirna with a cyanide-laced Vietnamese iced coffee.

“During the investigation, when a psychiatrist checked on Rangga’s health, it was discovered that some man had accused Rangga of having received a transfer of funds from Arief to kill Mirna,” said Otto, adding that the incident had been written about in the examination report.

However, in the same trial, Rangga denied receiving the money transfer. Instead, he said to the psychiatrist that he had simply experienced an accusation from an unknown man.

“I reject it, judge. If I accepted the money, I would have resigned from my work,” Rangga said, adding that he had reported the man who made the accusation to the police for defamation.

Separately, Arief also denied that he had killed his wife, or that he knew Rangga before the trial.

“I never met him before. That’s not correct,” Arief said after Wednesday’s session.

On Thursday, Jessica’s other lawyer, Hidayat Bostam, questioned the reliability of the police for ignoring the incident. The police, he added, should have investigated the information further.

“We have to dig deeper to see whether this fact is right or not. This has not come from us but from the examination report,” Hidayat said at the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, Jakarta Police general crimes director Sr. Comr. Krishna Murti disowned Otto’s statement and said the mysterious accusation was not in the examination report.

Nonetheless, he admitted that Rangga had told the psychiatrist during the investigation that he had been accused of murder by a man. However, the man was not a police officer, but a reporter.

“Rangga told the psychiatrist that a reporter had come to him and accused him of having received some money from Arief. The statement was then written into the medical examination report of the psychiatrist,” Krishna said as quoted by kompas.com.

Meanwhile, Mirna’s father, Edi Darmawan Salihin, has backed up his son-in-law and said the accusation was “a hoax”.

Mirna died on Jan. 6 after sipping on an iced coffee ordered and paid for by Jessica, who arrived at the cafe in Central Jakarta some 40 minutes before her friend.

Jessica was suspected of having murdered the victim because she was hurt by Mirna’s advice to break up with her drug addict boyfriend back when they were still studying together in Australia.

After a series of investigations, the case was eventually brought to trial last month. However, the police and prosecutors have yet to bring forward any witnesses or evidence showing that Jessica poured the poison into the coffee.