Who poisoned the coffee that Mirna drank? Photo: 123rf.com
It has all the trappings of an incredible show – drama, sensation, intrigue, suspense and mystery – not unlike Indonesian sinetron (TV dramas).
When the murder case was brought to court, Indonesians were glued to their TV sets. More people watched the 135-day court proceedings that began on June 15, 2016, than the top-rated TV series at the time. The case, better known as kasus kopi sianida (case of the cyanide coffee) was the “trial of the century” for Indonesia, just like the O.J. Simpson’s case that gripped the United States in the 1990s.
Three friends met at a cafe. One died. One was accused of killing her by deliberately poisoning the Vietnamese iced coffee meant for her friend with cyanide. The other turned against the accused, portraying her as a suspect. The accused was found guilty by three judges presiding over the case and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Her defence lawyers appealed but was rejected by the higher courts.
Jessica Kumala Wongso is still in prison. But the case simply refused to go away.
Jessica, Wayan Mirna Salihin (the deceased) and another friend Hani Juwita Boon knew one another when they were studying in Sydney, Australia. Mirna and Hani went back to Indonesia after completing their studies but Jessica stayed on to work there and even got permanent resident status. But they kept in touch with one another, communicating regularly via WhatsApp.
In January 2016, the then 27-year old Jessica returned to Jakarta. She had planned to meet Mirna, Hani and another friend. It was Hani who suggested they meet at Olivier Cafe at Grand Indonesia shopping mall at 5pm.
Jessica was accused of murdering a friend by slipping cyanide into her coffee at an upmarket Jakarta cafe in 2016. Photo: AFP
Since Jessica was not familiar with the place, she arrived much earlier, at 3.32pm. She made a reservation and left to do some shopping. According to the cafe’s CCTV, she came back at 4.14pm with three bags, probably presents for her friends. She ordered drinks and placed the bags in front of her. When Mirna and Hani came, it was already 5.16pm.
Mirna drank the Vietnamese coffee immediately, and then started to have seizure-like symptoms. Her husband Arief Soemarko arrived, rushed her to a clinic nearby but later took her to Abdi Waluyo Hospital in Menteng, Central Jakarta. Mirna died.
Jessica was accused of poisoning her friend, and charged with premeditated murder on Jan 30, 2016. On Oct 27, she was found guilty of Mirna’s death.
Did Jessica kill Mirna? The lead defence lawyer Otto Hasibuan and his team were adamant that Jessica was not given a fair trial. There was no real motive for her to do what she was accused of. Rumours about jealousy because they were lovers before Mirna got married were mere speculations. There was also a theory that both were involved with the same man in Australia. But nothing was really proven.
Jessica was also portrayed as crazy and a psycho-narcissist. A psychiatrist even believed that since her eyes “did not shine” like Julia Roberts’, therefore she exhibited childlike attention-seeking and was capable of vengeful behaviour. Jessica’s demeanour during the trial – calm and always smiling – was read as an indication of her split personality, the other side being erratic, deceptive, destructive and manipulative.
A police officer who was brought in from Australia testified that she had criminal records that had nothing to do with the case. He even opined that she had suicidal tendencies.
One prominent witness for the prosecution was Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej, a professor at the University of Gajah Mada who later became deputy minister of law and human rights. He was later lambasted by netizens for his claims that Jessica was clearly the murderer, despite all along maintaining that in a criminal case all the evidence should be terang benderang (clear as day). He had always been an advocate of the mantra “no autopsy, no crime” in any murder cases. Yet it was evident that no autopsy was done on Mirna, only samples taken from her stomach.
Much to the displeasure of the defence lawyers, the CCTV footage that became the basis for her conviction was not from the master tapes but were in fact transferred to pen drives or flash disks. In most courts, that would not even be admissible as evidence.
Despite the fact that a respectable forensic pathologist testified that there was no evidence that Mirna had died of cyanide poisoning, the court decided against Jessica.
At one point, the lead judge even intoned, “Jikalau bukan anda yang melakukannya, siapa lagi?” (If you were not the one who did it, who else could it have been?).
Then came Ice Cold: Murder, Coffee And Jessica Wongso. It was aired on Sept 28 this year. It quickly became one of the most-watched documentaries in Netflix history.
The case divided Indonesians from the start. Many at the time believed Jessica was the murderer. Those were the early days of social media when Instagram and TikTok were non-existent.
After the airing of the documentary, things changed dramatically. Doubts about Jessica’s guilt intensified. Netizens took to cyber-space to accuse the judicial proceedings as flawed. Netizens got the support of prominent figures that the case exposed serious weaknesses in the Indonesian criminal justice system.
The Fifth Estate has spoken. Almost 95% of netizens are in support of the case to be reviewed.
Many of the key characters are now becoming the source of netizens’ angst. The lead judge, Kisworo; the lead prosecutor, Shandy Handika; Professor Edward Omar; Hani and her husband; and especially Edi Dermawan Salihin, father of Mirna, are now the villains in the post-Netflix broadcast.
Edi was earlier seen as a grieving father. But since the Netflix documentary, viewers now see him as someone who is willing to do anything to put his alleged daughter’s murderer in prison. But it is his ethics and arrogance that irk netizens the most.
Will Otto succeed this time? Will Jessica be freed? Just wait for the next sinetron on your TV!
Johan Jaaffar was a former journalist. He loves all thing culture and the arts. He is a huge fan of the All Blacks rugby team.
