The most infamous Jakarta murder case of recent times may come to an anticlimactic end with the chief suspect walking away before the case is even brought to trial.
For a long time, the sole suspect in the murder of Wayan Mirna Salihin was her friend Jessica Kumala Wongso, who is suspected of poisoning the victim’s coffee with cyanide at Olivier Café in Grand Indonesia in January.
Jessica has been in police custody ever since she was named a suspect, but she hasn’t been brought to trial as the police have twice not been able to provide enough evidence in her crime dossier to satisfy prosecutors.
Yesterday, the Jakarta Metro Police submitted an updated dossier of the case to the High Prosecutor’s office.
“Before, we admit [the dossier] was incomplete. But now we hope that it’s sufficient with what the investigators at the prosecutor’s office demanded,” said Grand Commissioner Krishna Murti, director of the General Criminal Investigations Unit for the Jakarta Metro Police, as quoted by Vivanews.
Jessica will have been in police custody for 90 days on April 28. After that, the police have the option to extend her custody period by another 30 days, but if they still don’t have enough evidence against Jessica, then, according to the country’s Criminal Code, Jessica must be released from custody.
Should Jessica walk in the end, it would be a highly embarrassing episode for the Jakarta Metro Police, particularly for Krishna Murti. The senior commander, whose professionalism and sense of ethics came under question recently, once wrote this on his Facebook page after Jessica pleaded her innocence on live TV:
“Someone’s lying on TV… Hahaha; the more she speaks the more lies will be revealed. We haven’t released all the evidence…”
The question is, do the police actually have enough evidence to put Jessica away for murder? If so, they’re really waiting until the last minute to reveal it.
