Expert Witness Says Mirna`s Death Not Caused by Cyanide Poisoning
8 September 2016 12:26 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Forensic toxicology expert Djaja Surya Atmadja said the cause of Wayan Mirna Salihin’s death was not cyanide poisoning.
“My conclusion is that it is impossible for cyanide to enter [Mirna’s body],” Djaja said Wednesday in his testimony during the trial of Jessica Kumala Wongso in Central Jakarta District Court.
Djaja, a lecturer of the Faculty of Medicine at the Univeristy of Indonesia (UI), revealed that cyanide concentration that enters the body through the mouth should also be found in a significant amount in the stomach. Lethal dose of cyanide ranges from 150mg to 250mg per liter, he said. Whereas cyanide concentration in Mirna’s stomach was at only 0.2mg.
Djaja went on to say that cyanide concentration of 150mg per liter in the stomach could make the doctor who examines the body lose consciousness. Even cyanide concentration of 10mg will make people intoxicated, he said. Because the smell of cyanide, which is similar to that of bitter almonds, can be identified easily. People with certain genes can even smell 1mg of cyanide, including Djaja.
Jessica’s defense lawyer Otto Hasibuan questioned cyanide concentration in two evidence of two glass cups of Vietnamese iced coffee consumed by Mirna, which contained 7,400mg and 7,900mg of cyanide, respectively. Otto said Mirna allegedly consumed 298mg of cyanide from the drink. “If such amount was laced into a coffee milk, what could have happened to people around [Mirna]?” he asked.
Djaja answered that within a 500m radius, people around Mirna would have been left unconsciouss. Djaja said he could not correlate the cyanide concentration in the glass cups with that of Mirna’s stomach. As a forensic expert, he only examined the body, not the glass cups.
“We [forensic experts] only examined the body, I don’t care what was contained in the glass cups,” he said.
Djaja said a complete autopsy is needed to find out the cause of Mirna’s death. Because an in-depth and thorough examination in poisoning death can eliminate other cause of death.
“If we only examine the stomach or lever, we could miss any other causes which may have been left undetected,” he said.
FRISKI RIANA
