Woman, Who Poisoned Friend's Coffee With Cyanide In 2016, Denies Being Close

Jessica Wongso, the woman convicted of poisoning her 27-year-old friend's coffee in 2016, has been released from prison after eight years. Named the Iced Coffee Killer, Wongso, a permanent resident of Australia, has denied being close to Wayan Mirna Salihin, whom she met at a design college in Sydney, Australia.

She also avoided directly answering whether she was responsible for her death. At her press conference, she said she had forgiven everyone who wronged her, reported ABC Australia.

She claimed that the two weren't best friends and were just from the same country. After graduation, Ms Salihin went back to Indonesia, while Wongso stayed back, she said.

According to the Times, Wongso allegedly arrived at the cafe first, placed shopping bags on the table to block the view of CCTV footage, and then ordered drinks for Ms Salihin and another friend. During the interview, she defended her behaviour, saying she was simply bored and liked to shuffle and play with them.

"Oh, it's just me being me. I just put it there, shuffle it and play with it. It really doesn't mean anything at all... just me being bored," she stated.

Wongso said that Ms Salihin found the coffee tasted weird and soon became sick. Recalling the moment, she said, "I think she [Ms Salihin] just took a sip and after that, she was saying something like, it tastes really weird and stuff, and after that, she got really sick. And that's it. That's pretty much all I remember," reported PEOPLE.

When asked about the murder, she said there were so many things she was not allowed to discuss publicly, including whether she killed her friend. Asked if someone else did it, Wongso simply responded, "Maybe."

According to PEOPLE, just when Ms Salihin took a sip of coffee, she immediately collapsed. She was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Wongso was arrested in 2018 after she was found guilty of slipping cyanide into Ms Salihin's Vietnamese coffee at a cafe. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison but was released in 2024 on the condition that she would stay in Jakarta until 2032.