A woman dubbed the “coffee killer”, who murdered her college friend by slipping cyanide into her drink, has been jailed for 20 years.
The sentencing of Jessica Wongso, a 28-year-old Indonesian citizen, ended a case that gripped the country for months.
Wongso, a permanent Australian resident, went to meet her friend Wayan Salihin at a mall in Jakarta where she poured poison into the woman’s coffee.
After sipping the beverage, the 27-year-old collapsed on the floor and went into convulsions, dying by the time she got to hospital.
Prosecutors claimed the murder, which took place in January, was carried out when Ms Salihin advised Wongso to split up with her boyfriend.
Dozens of police were positioned around the Central Jakarta courtroom yesterday as crowds scrambled to hear the verdict.
Judge Windu Kisworo was applauded by crowds who had packed into the courtroom, telling them: “The defendant has been proven guilty of premeditated murder.
“The murder was vile and sadistic because the defendant did it to her own friend."
Wongso, who plans to appeal and denied the murder, remained expressionless while hearing the sentence.
Her defence lawyers had argued that police never found cyanide in her possession and CCTV from the café had not shown her poisoning the coffee.
President Joko Widodo's administration waded into the case, saying Wongso would not be executed if she got the death penalty.
The deal was made with Australia in order so Australian police could help in the investigation.
