Australian resident Jessica Kumala Wongso is jailed for 20 years for giving her friend lethal dose of cyanide in Jakarta cafe

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

An Australian resident has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of murdering her friend with cyanide-laced coffee.

Jessica Kumala Wongso, 28, remained expressionless as three Jakarta judges sentenced her in a case that has dominated the Indonesian press since it began earlier this year.



The judges found on Thursday that she had shown no remorse for killing her 27-year-old friend, Wayan Mirna Salihin, at a Jakarta cafe on 6 January.



“I don’t accept this decision because for me, it’s not fair and very one-sided,” Wongso said after the verdict.

The judges made findings on the “emotional baggage” they said led Wongso to return to Jakarta in December last year after living in Australia.



“Because of the defendant’s personal problems in Australia which were so horrifying ... [she] decided to come back to Indonesia,” Binsar Gultom said.



“It was not with the intention of having a holiday, but because of her many problems [to do with her] relationships, social life, work and legal problems.”



He said Wongso was still hurting over a breakup in late 2014, and when she first met up with Mirna and her husband, Arif Soemarko, last December and saw themhappy something was “triggered”.



During the trial, two Australian forensic experts put forward by the defence argued it was not possible to conclude that Mirna had died from cyanide poisoning as a postmortem had not taken place on religious grounds.



Dr Michael Robertson said only a small amount of cyanide had been found in samples from Mirna’s stomach and her death could have been due to other causes.



But the judges rejected this, finding almost 300mg of cyanide had entered Mirna’s body. About 120mg would be lethal to humans.



Wongso, they added, was the only one at Olivier cafe in central Jakarta that day with the means and motive to carry out the murder.

Oustide court Mirna’s father, Eddy Dermawan Salihin, hit out at the sentence and a deal struck with the Australian federal police (AFP) following Wongso’s arrest in January.

The AFP only agreed to assist with the police investigation on the proviso that the death penalty would not be sought or carried out. Were it not for the agreement, he said, Wongso could have been sentenced to death.