The cyanide poisoning murder case of Wayan Mirna Salihin is undoubtedly one of the most publicized Indonesian crime stories of recent times. Even though the murder trial is still ongoing, the general public seem to have already branded sole suspect Jessica Wongso guilty of slipping cyanide into her friend Mirna’s Vietnamese coffee at Olivier Café in Grand Indonesia mall earlier this year.
Sadly, we’d be surprised if some budding entrepreneur didn’t take advantage of the unrelenting media attention surrounding this high-profile case. And, of course, someone totally created a ‘Jessica’ coffee label, which obviously went viral after it was made available online.
To make sure nobody misses the reference, the manufacturer made sure to slap a photo of Jessica Wongso on every bag of coffee (we wonder if this opens up potential for a lawsuit from Jessica herself?). As the label is becoming more and more popular online, comments from netizens are inevitably pouring in, with many of them jokingly asking if the coffee contains cyanide.
In fact, the packaging clearly states that the coffee is “original, without cyanide.”
Merdeka tracked down the man behind Jessica coffee, who was revealed to be Haris G Bastian from Surabaya. Haris admitted that he got the idea from the cyanide poisoning case and that he sees it strictly as a business venture.
“There is no intention to insult [Jessica],” he said, as quoted by Merdeka today.
Haris sells each bag for Rp 20,000, which comes with a free coffee cup. He said sales have been great – he has shipped the coffee to Jakarta, Bandung, Solo, and even Kalimantan – ever since his product went viral online.
Whatever his intentions, most people would (hopefully) say that it is wrong to use the image of a suspect in a murder case (who, again it must be said, has not yet been found guilty or innocent by the court) for personal gain.
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