Coffee murder: lawyers deny Australian resident Jessica Wongso spiked friend’s drink with cyanide for ‘revenge’
Lawyers for an Indonesian woman charged with murdering her college friend by poisoning her coffee said on Wednesday there was no evidence that she committed such a crime.
At the opening court hearing, prosecutors accused Jessica Kumala Wongso, a resident of Australia, of the premeditated murder of Wayan Mirna Salihin at a central Jakarta cafe in early January. If found guilty she could face the death penalty.
“According to the results of a medical forensic examination, the cause of Mirna’s death was cyanide poisoning,” prosecutor Ardito Muwardi told a packed courtroom in Indonesia’s capital.
Prosecutors said Salihin took a sip of her cyanide-laced drink, collapsed on the floor, and went into convulsions. She died by the time she arrived at hospital.
According to The Jarkata Post, Muwardi told the court that Wongso murdered Salihin in revenge. Wongso had been outraged at Salihin whom is said to have repeatedly told her to break up with her boyfriend.
“Mirna advised Jessica to break up with boyfriend because her boyfriend was a drug abuser and violent. Mirna said that Jessica’s boyfriend was not a good person and had a bad economic situation. Jessica was offended by Mirna’s advice,” the Post quoted Muwardi as saying
Defence lawyers said there was no evidence Wongso, 27, had poisoned her coffee.
“Whether through CCTV or based on witness accounts, there was no movement by Jessica to retrieve and put sodium cyanide into Mirna’s glass,” Wongso’s lawyer, Elizabeth Batubara, said in the crowded court room.
“Nobody saw Jessica put poison into Mirna’s glass.”
The next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Wongso, 27, lived in Sydney until last year, where she studied at a college with Salihin.
The case has grabbed widespread media attention in Indonesia and neighbouring Australia.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s administration has waded into the case, saying Wongso would not be executed if found guilty, according to media. Australian authorities agreed to assist after an Indonesian minister guaranteed that Wongso would not be handed the death penalty if found guilty of murder, a capital crime in Indonesia.
Australia does not have the death sentence and opposes its use in other countries.
However Indonesian officials have since given out mixed messages, with some suggesting the guarantee will not be honoured.
Australia’s police force faced criticism last year for its involvement in tracking an international drug smuggling network that culminated in the execution of two Australian drug traffickers by firing squad in Indonesia.
Indonesia has stepped up the use of the death penalty, mainly as a deterrent to drug crimes, and plans to execute 16 prisoners as early as next month.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
