THE sons of murdered Australian businessman Bob Ellis now face a bitter fight to ensure their mother - the killer of their father - doesn’t get a cent from his substantial Indonesian wealth and assets.

Noor Ellis was convicted this week of orchestrating the murder and sentenced to 12 years in jail.

The sentence, well short of the maximum and less than the prosecution demand, has dismayed the couple’s two sons, who say justice was not done and who have now disowned their mother.

Peter and John Ellis, Perth-based university students, now face a battle to ensure that their father’s killer doesn’t get any of the wealth he worked his whole life to achieve.

They are however hampered by the fact that in Indonesia, where foreigners may not own property in their own names and where everything was in Noor Ellis’ name, there is also no forfeiture rule to prevent a murderer from benefiting from the estate.

The two young men, who miss their father and his counsel dreadfully and who feel betrayed by their mother, have worked with lawyers for the past few weeks in a bid to have all the assets frozen. However nothing can be finalised until after the appeal processes, which could take up to a year.

And they learned recently that their mother had sold a block of land worth $250,000 without their knowledge or approval.

Speaking to News Corporation in the wake of the verdict Peter, 20 and John, 23, both say justice was not done in the Denpasar District Court.

Three of the five hitmen who Noor Ellis paid $14,200 to kill her husband, including the man who slit his throat, also received 12-year sentences. The couple’s two housemaids, who were accessories, got seven years.

“We will have to fight to remove Noor from the Indonesian assets. Everything is also on hold until the final verdict from the appeals, which could take up to a year. At the moment we have done our best to freeze the assets and keep an eye on them for any fraudulent activity,” both sons said.

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“We are going to do everything we can to ensure Noor can’t get access to these assets. It’s not a simple process in Indonesia, like in Australia and New Zealand where we have he forfeiture rule that prevents a person who causes the death of another from benefiting from their estate,” the brothers said.

They have, however, learned that their mother has pocketed $250,000 from the sale of a block of land.

“We have learnt through a real estate agent that Noor has illegally sold a block of land worth $250,000. That’s all the information we have.”

Mr Ellis, a long-time Indonesian resident, had worked hard to set up his business empire which included a large telecommunications business in Jakarta, a dive business in Bali, interest in a hotel in Bali, plus vacant blocks of land around the island.

But as a non-Indonesian it was not in his name. In the months before his death he had made attempts to become an Indonesian citizen in a bid to have the wealth in his own name and secured for his children. But that process was not completed by the time of his death, on October 19 last year.

Now Peter and John, along with their half-siblings Kelvin and Christina, are working to ensure the estate does not disappear.

Neither Peter nor John wants to see their mother again, despite having questions they would like her to answer.

Peter says that the verdict in Bali will be the last time he ever sees her.

“I have plenty of questions to ask her, like why she really did this and what has she done to influence the verdict. Whatever questions I have will never truly be answered so there is no real point in even speaking to her,” Peter said.

At court on Wednesday, Peter says she did not even acknowledge them.

“She was comfortable, calm and collected. It was almost as if Noor knew what sentence she was receiving.”

John concurs: “It is possibly the last time I see her. We both have questions to ask her but even if we had questions it would not be easy to ask her. My brother was denied entry to see our own mother back in February.”

Both brothers are also appalled at the claims, made by Noor in the court and untested, that she was subjected to 11 years of disappointment by her husband and that he was womanising and having affairs and deprived her of money.

“The allegations that my father mistreated Noor are complete lies. At the moment we are hearing Noor’s side of the story. No-one has mentioned the supportive and kind-hearted providing father who we all knew,” John says.

Peter says all his mother’s claims are nonsense.

“It is all total lies, just like where she mentions she is financially deprived. Dad made sure she was very well taken care of and always had large amounts of money on her. She had a stack of credit cards that Dad had to pay for all the time and heaps of expensive gold jewellery,” Peter says.

“Our father never had one good day in court. They painted a disgusting, untrue depiction of our father who was caring, loving and did everything to ensure our family was being looked after. This is how Noor repaid the favour to our father, by murdering him.”

Noor Ellis has told News Corporation that she loves her sons and hopes one day to reconcile with them.

Peter is blunt: “If she loves us and wants to live happily with us she wouldn’t have paid for five people to cut my father’s throat.”