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Jessika Wongso

Jessica Wongso, Mirna Salihin and the fatal cyanide drink

Police officers conduct a preliminary re-enactment at Olivier Cafe.

An Indonesian Australian woman charged with the fatal cyanide ­poisoning of her friend must be ­executed if found guilty to prevent copycat murders, the dead woman’s father says.

Justice Minister Michael Keenan and Indonesian Law Minister Yasonna Laoly have confirmed Indonesia gave an undertaking in return for Australian Federal Police co-operation in the case that the death penalty would be taken off the table for Indonesian-born Australian permanent resident Jessica Wongso.

Ministerial approval is a necessary condition for Australian assistance in investigating crimes that could lead to the death penalty, after the AFP tip-off that ultimately led to the ­execution last year of Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

Dermawan Salihin, 64, told The Australian yesterday that this should not affect the Indonesian judges’ final sentencing decision should Ms Wongso be found guilty of his daughter’s murder. “If this girl manages to get away then the same thing can happen to other people. Somebody can just poison another person and get away with it,” the Jakarta businessman said. “This girl has to be killed as an example so nobody else follows what she has done. Everybody in Indonesia is watching this.”

Ms Salihin (left) and Ms Wongso (right)

Ms Wongso will face a Jakarta court today charged with the premeditated murder in January of former college friend Wayan Mirna Salihin, 27, at an upscale cafe in Jakarta. The women studied together at Billy Blue College of Design in Ultimo, Sydney. Ms Salihin returned to Indonesia in 2014 while Ms Wongso had been back in Jakarta just five months when she was detained on suspicion of murder.

An autopsy confirmed Ms ­Salihin died of cyanide poisoning soon after drinking a Vietnamese iced-coffee ordered for her by Ms Wongso. The case has become a tabloid staple, fuelling salacious speculation over the motives for Salihin’s killing and a ghoulish boom in business for the Olivier cafe where she was killed. “Everybody calls it Mirna’s coffee; ‘I’ll have a Mirna’s coffee, but without the cyanide’,” Mr ­Salihin said.

Police say CCTV footage shows Ms Wongso ­arriving at the cafe an hour before Salihin and a third friend, ordering drinks and waiting alone at the table.

Just before her arrest, Ms Wongso told an interviewer on Indonesian TV that she had no idea what was happening when Salihin became ill after sipping her drink. “I was thinking, ‘What is wrong with her? At that time I didn’t think anything more. I thought it might be a heart attack, but it’s not possible, she’s still so young.”

Indonesian police travelled to Australia in February, where they are understood to have interviewed former work colleagues of Ms Wongso at the NSW Ambulance Service. Potassium cyanide is a chemical commonly used in goldmining and is cheap and readily available in Indonesia.

Source: The Australian, Amanda Hodge, June 15, 2016

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Widodo promises 'to respect' accused cyanide-coffee killer death penalty deal

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo will intervene if an Australian resident charged with murder is sentenced to death. Indonesia's Justice Minister Yasonna Laoly says Indonesia will honour a guarantee to Australia that Jessica Wongso will not be executed.

"As a state we have to respect the international agreement," Mr Laoly said.

He has also revealed that Wongso may never have gone to trial but for Australian Federal Police (AFP) assistance with the case.

Wongso will face a Jakarta court on Wednesday charged with the murder by cyanide poisoning of her friend Mirna Salihin.

Ms Salihin, who had also lived in Australia and studied in Sydney with Wongso, died shortly after drinking a Vietnamese iced coffee ordered by her friend in an upmarket Jakarta cafe.

Police say Wongso poured cyanide into the coffee.

Wongso lived in Sydney until shortly before Ms Salihin's death, and the AFP helped Jakarta detectives work on the case.

Jakarta police travelled to Australia as part of their investigations and worked with AFP officers.

Justice Minister Michael Keenan said he approved AFP assistance after Indonesia promised Wongso would not face the death penalty if convicted.

Australian evidence crucial in case against Wongso

District Court spokesman and judge Jamaluddin Samosir, who will try the case, told the ABC earlier this month that a deal to strike-out the death penalty "was not possible".

Judge Jamaluddin said: "The judges can decide any penalty they want. We are independent, there can be no intervention."

That statement caused a stir in Indonesia.

"Of course the judges have independence. But in a state system, the institutions will respect an agreement made with another country," Mr Laoly responded yesterday.

"If the judicial process ignores the guarantee, the president has power (to give clemency)."

Mr Laoly said the AFP assistance was crucial in helping the case become "clearer".

"She almost got away for the sake of regulations," he said.

"If we did not get the evidence provided by Australia, how could we proceed?"

Prosecutors repeatedly refused to accept a police file on the case because of a lack of evidence in the brief of evidence.

Under Indonesian law, suspects must be released after 90 days in custody if the case has not been passed on to prosecutors.

Source: abc.net.au, June 14, 2016

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Death penalty up to judge: Indonesia

Jessica Kumala Wongso

The Indonesian government is continuing to shy away from a public guarantee that the death penalty will not be carried out in the case of a woman accused of murdering her friend with a cyanide-laced coffee.

During a joint press conference in Sydney on Wednesday, Justice Minister Michael Keenan said Australia had received written assurance from the Indonesian government that the death penalty would not be carried out in the matter of Jessica Kumala Wongso, thus paving the way for the Australian Federal Police to provide assistance.

But when Indonesian Security Minister Luhut Panjaitan was asked during the same conference to guarantee that undertaking, he replied: "Well, I think we leave it to the judge, the court, but I believe we work it out (the) Indonesian way."

The comments followed annual talks in Sydney between Australia and Indonesia on law and security and come more than a week after Jakarta prosecutors and police stated it was still "possible" Jessica could face the death penalty were she to be convicted of murder.

Jessica is accused of killing her 27-year-old friend Wayan Mirna Salihin in January with a poisoned Vietnamese ice coffee at a popular Jakarta restaurant.

The AFP helped with investigations into the case only on the proviso that the death penalty would not be sought or carried out were Jessica convicted.

In the event that a death sentence was handed down by the judge, Indonesia's president could grant clemency.

In a case that has dominated local press, Jessica is accused of killing 27-year-old Mirna, with whom she studied in Australia - first at Billy Blue College in Sydney and later at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne in 2008.

Jessica met up with Mirna and their friend Hani on January 6 during a trip home to Indonesia.

She allegedly laced Mirna's Vietnamese iced coffee with cyanide and she collapsed and began convulsing moments after sipping it.

Prosecutors have more than 90 days to prepare the indictment against Jessica and hand it to Central Jakarta District Court.

Source: AAP, Karlis Salna and Lauren Farrow, June 8, 2016

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