Indonesian prosecutors on Wednesday demanded that a woman accused of murdering a friend by slipping cyanide into her coffee spend 20 years behind bars in the high-profile case.
Jessica Kumala Wongso, an Australian permanent resident, denies the premeditated murder of college friend Wayan Mirna Salihin, who collapsed and died after drinking the coffee at an upmarket Jakarta cafe in January.
Prosecutor Melanie Wuwung said the 27-year-old design graduate was determined to kill Salihin and had carried out her plan “meticulously.”
Photo: AP
“The defendant’s act was especially cruel as it was committed against her best friend,” Wuwung said in her closing remarks, before urging judges “to sentence the defendant to 20 years in prison.”
“The cyanide used to end the victim’s life did not kill her directly, but instead tortured her until death,” she said.
Wongso sat alone in the middle of the crowded courtroom as the allegations were read out.
The “poison coffee” case has generated huge interest across Indonesia, with some networks broadcasting the trial proceedings live.
Hundreds of journalists and spectators packed the Jakarta courthouse for the marathon sentence recommendation, which took prosecutors nearly nine hours to read.
Prosecutors have alleged Wongso decided to kill the victim after Salihin, also 27, advised her to break up with her boyfriend as he was using drugs.
She invited Salihin to a cafe at a upmarket mall, where she slipped cyanide into her Vietnamese iced coffee, the court heard.
Salihin collapsed and began convulsing after drinking the coffee, dying soon afterward in hospital.
Police say that Wongso placed bags on the table to prevent CCTV cameras in the cafe from filming her slipping the poison into the coffee.
Wongso told the court she could not remember key details about the day, such as where she put her bags, saying everything moved fast once her friend sipped the coffee and remarked about the odd taste.
The defense team asserts the case against their client is weak and lacks evidence to prove guilt.
Since the trial began in June, three forensic experts called by the defense have testified there was no proof Salihin’s death was caused by cyanide poisoning.
Until last year Wongso lived in Sydney, where she studied at a design college with Salihin.
Australian authorities agreed to assist with the case after receiving assurances that Wongso would not be handed the death penalty if found guilty of murder, a capital crime in Indonesia.
A verdict is to be handed down at a later date.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS