Cyanide Coffee Murderer Jessica Files Appeal With Jakarta High Court
Jakarta. Jessica Kumala Wongso, who received a 20-year jail sentence for the premeditated murder of her friend Wayan Mirna Salihin in the high-profile "cyanide coffee murder" trial, has filed an appeal to the Jakarta High Court on Wednesday (07/12).
Otto Hasibuan, Jessica’s lawyer, said he had submitted a 148-page appeal document to the court to seek acquittal for his client.
Jessica was sentenced to 20 years in jail on Nov. 27 after the court found her guilty of killing her friend Mirna by spiking the latter's coffee with cyanide at a café in the upmarket Grand Indonesia mall in Central Jakarta in January 2016.
"We've still got a chance at the High Court and the Supreme Court. I hope the High Court will carefully examine our appeal document. There is no overwhelming reason not to acquit Jessica," Otto told reporters at the Central Jakarta District Court on Wednesday.
Otto also expressed his confusion after prosecutors in the case said they will also file an appeal even though the original sentence had met their demand.
The prosecutors had accused Jessica of intentionally killing Mirna over a personal dispute dating back to June 2015, when they were both students at Billy Blue College in Sydney, Australia.
During the trial, they provided 80 pieces of evidence, including expert testimonies, that they claimed proved beyond doubt that Mirna had died from cyanide spiked into a cup of Vietnamese coffee that Jessica had bought for her.
Otto argued there was no clear evidence that could prove it was actually Jessica who had put the cyanide in Mirna’s coffee.
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