An Australian resident has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of murdering her friend with cyanide-laced coffee. 
 
 Jessica Kumala Wongso, 28, remained expressionless as three Jakarta judges sentenced her in a case that has dominated the Indonesian press since it began earlier this year. 
 
 
 
 The judges found on Thursday that she had shown no remorse for killing her 27-year-old friend, Wayan Mirna Salihin, at a Jakarta cafe on 6 January. 
 
 
 
 “I don’t accept this decision because for me, it’s not fair and very one-sided,” Wongso said after the verdict. 
 
 The judges made findings on the “emotional baggage” they said led Wongso to return to Jakarta in December last year after living in Australia. 
 
 
 
 “Because of the defendant’s personal problems in Australia which were so horrifying ... [she] decided to come back to Indonesia,” Binsar Gultom said. 
 
 
 
 “It was not with the intention of having a holiday, but because of her many problems [to do with her] relationships, social life, work and legal problems.” 
 
 
 
 He said Wongso was still hurting over a breakup in late 2014, and when she first met up with Mirna and her husband, Arif Soemarko, last December and saw themhappy something was “triggered”. 
 
 
 
 During the trial, two Australian forensic experts put forward by the defence argued it was not possible to conclude that Mirna had died from cyanide poisoning as a postmortem had not taken place on religious grounds. 
 
 
 
 Dr Michael Robertson said only a small amount of cyanide had been found in samples from Mirna’s stomach and her death could have been due to other causes. 
 
 
 
 But the judges rejected this, finding almost 300mg of cyanide had entered Mirna’s body. About 120mg would be lethal to humans. 
 
 
 
 Wongso, they added, was the only one at Olivier cafe in central Jakarta that day with the means and motive to carry out the murder. 
 
 Oustide court Mirna’s father, Eddy Dermawan Salihin, hit out at the sentence and a deal struck with the Australian federal police (AFP) following Wongso’s arrest in January. 
 
 The AFP only agreed to assist with the police investigation on the proviso that the death penalty would not be sought or carried out. Were it not for the agreement, he said, Wongso could have been sentenced to death. 

 Cyanide coffee death: Jessica Wongso found guilty of Mirna Salihin's murder 
 
 Updated 
 
 Australian permanent resident Jessica Wongso has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for murdering her friend Mirna Salihin with a cyanide-laced coffee in a Jakarta cafe. 
 
 Key points: Police alleged Jessica Wongso spiked her friend's iced coffee with cyanide in January 
 
 Several experts testified that there was proof cyanide was cause of death 
 
 Judges conclude Wongso plotted the murder and showed no regret for crime 
 
 Wongso said she will appeal the verdict 
 
 Wongso, 27, was found guilty of murder in an Indonesian court on Thursday evening. 
 
 "Jessica Kumala Wongso has been legally and convincingly proven guilty of committing premeditated murder," presiding judge Kisworo, who uses a single name, said when reading the 377-page verdict over about four hours. 
 
 Police alleged Wongso spiked her friend's iced coffee with cyanide as they dined with another friend at an upmarket shopping mall in Jakarta in January. 
 
 The panel of judges concluded that Wongso plotted the murder and showed no regret for what it called a "vile and sadistic" crime. 
 
 There were several unsuccessful attempts to bring the case to trial before it finally began in June. 
 
 The alleged motive, that Wongso was angry that Salihin had suggested she break up with a troublesome boyfriend and was jealous of Salihin's own relationship, was ridiculed by defence lawyers who said it "could not be accepted by common sense". 
 
 The judges accepted that motive, but the case had other failings, including surveillance video from the cafe, which did not show Wongso tampering with the victim's coffee. 
 
 Three Australian toxicology and forensic experts testified during the case that there was no proof cyanide was the cause of death. 
 
 But the prosecution said other evidence — such as a differentiation in the coffee's colour and the presence of cyanide in the cup — indicated the victim died of poisoning. 
 
 When asked why a conclusive autopsy had not been conducted on the victim, Rappler Indonesia journalist Natashya Gutierrez told the ABC that it was common in the predominantly Muslim country not to conduct autopsies. 
 
 "However for a murder trial this big, the defence was truly pushing for that autopsy, [but] the prosecution decided against it. 
 
 "So basically everything the prosecution said the judge repeated, and in the end decided that the premeditated murder was 'sadistic' and thus convicted Wongso to 20 years in prison." 
 
 'The death of law in Indonesia': Wongso set to appeal verdict 
 
 Wongso and Salihin had both studied at a design school in Sydney and had kept in contact in the years after they had graduated. 
 
 Wongso, who had worked for New South Wales ambulance, faced hours of detailed questioning during the murder trial. 
 
 She denied the charges and repeatedly told the court she could not remember her movements after arriving at the cafe. 
 
 Blanket television coverage of the trial transfixed Indonesians with its window into the lives of privileged young women and the country's often arbitrary legal system. 
 
 A total of 46 witnesses including the victim's father, husband and twin sister as well as cafe employees testified at the trial. 
 
 The Australian Federal Police also assisted in the case, after being guaranteed the death penalty would not apply. 
 
 Wongso indicated in the court that she will appeal the verdict, with reporters adding that her lawyers called it "the death of law in Indonesia". 
 
 'This is a decision that has a lot of holes in it': expert 
 
 The director of the centre for Indonesian law, Islam and society at Melbourne Law School said it was "entirely possible" the decision would be reversed. 
 
 "Quite often major criminal cases do get reversed in the Supreme Court, sometimes at that second review stage," Professor Tim Lindsey told the ABC. 
 
 "I think it's also very likely that whatever the outcomes in the forthcoming appeals, both sides will keep appealing right through until the end. So that could take years. 
 
 "We're unlikely to really know how this case will play out for some time." 
 
 He said the decision "has a lot of holes in it" for a number of reasons, including "questionable" evidence. 
 
 One such factor was the lack of a conclusive autopsy, which is common Indonesia as a majority Muslim country, but there were other "big problems with the evidence". 
 
 "There's problems about what actually killed the victim. There's a lack of evidence of Jessica Wongso poisoning, and there's weaknesses in the autopsy process, so it seems that these matters were not considered in much detail by the judge," he said. 
 
 "These are issues that are going to become very important as the appeal proceeds." 
 
 ABC/AP 
 
 Topics: courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, murder-and-manslaughter, crime, indonesia 
 
 First posted 

 Jessica Kumala Wongso, center, is surrounded by her lawyers after her sentence at a courtroom of Central Jakarta District Court in Jakarta, Indonesia, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. The former Australian resident... (Associated Press) 
 
 Jessica Kumala Wongso, center, is surrounded by her lawyers after her sentence at a courtroom of Central Jakarta District Court in Jakarta, Indonesia, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. The former Australian resident... (Associated Press) 
 
 JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A Jakarta court sentenced an Indonesian woman accused of killing a former classmate with cyanide-laced coffee to 20 years in prison on Thursday, in a dramatic climax to a trial that was broadcast live and became a national spectacle. 
 
 The Central Jakarta District Court found Jessica Kumala Wongso, 28, guilty of murdering Wayan Mirna Salihin at an upmarket Jakarta cafe in January. Salihin collapsed and died after sipping iced coffee at the cafe while Wongso was present. 
 
 The two had been classmates at Billy Blue College of Design in Sydney, Australia. Wongso's lawyers said they would appeal. 
 
 Blanket television coverage of the trial transfixed Indonesians with its window into the lives of privileged young women and the country's often arbitrary legal system. There were several unsuccessful attempts to bring the case to trial before it finally began in June, reflecting the weakness of the evidence and questions over the alleged motive for the murder. 
 
 The judges, however, agreed with the prosecutors' contention that Wongso was angry that Salihin had suggested she break up with a troublesome boyfriend and was jealous of Salihin's own relationship. The alleged motive, however, was ridiculed by defense lawyers who said it "could not be accepted by common sense." 
 
 The case had other failings, including that surveillance video from the cafe did not show Wongso tampering with the victim's coffee. In addition, Salihin's body was not autopsied and several overseas experts testified that the tiny amount of cyanide detected by tests may not have been the cause of death or could have been introduced by contamination after her death. 
 
 The judges said other evidence indicated the victim died of poisoning. 
 
 "Jessica Kumala Wongso has been legally and convincingly proven guilty of committing premeditated murder," said presiding judge Kisworo, who uses a single name, in reading the 377-page verdict over about four hours. 
 
 The panel of judges concluded that Wongso plotted the murder and showed no regret for what it called a "vile and sadistic" crime. 
 
 A total of 46 witnesses including the victim's father, husband and twin sister as well cafe employees testified at the trial.
– A sensational trial that was practically a national soap opera in Indonesia has wrapped up, and a woman is going to jail for 20 years as a result. Australia's Jessica Wongso, 28, was found guilty of murdering friend Mirna Salihin, 27, by lacing her iced coffee with cyanide in a cafe in Jakarta earlier this year, reports ABC Australia. In a trial broadcast live on TV to huge audiences, prosecutors claimed Wongso was jealous of her friend, who'd recently gotten married, and angry that she'd previously told Wongso to break up with a boyfriend, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Judges called the crime "vile and sadistic," reports the AP, though Wongso continues to insist she's innocent and plans to appeal. One key factor in the case: A full autopsy wasn't conducted for religious reasons, reports the Australian AP. The defense called toxicologists who testified there was no proof that cyanide was the cause of death. The judges disagreed, and a former boss testified that Wongso once told her she knew "the right dose" to kill someone. During the trial, Wongso said she couldn't recall her actions in the cafe but denied poisoning her friend's drink. Surveillance video does not show her tampering with the iced coffee. One of her lawyers says Wongso was so confident she would be exonerated that she told her family not to attend the verdict as she would soon be home.