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