THEY were two young friends who studied together in Australia. 
 
 But one of them is now dead and the other has been arrested over the suspected murder. 
 
 Newlywed Wayan Mirna Salihin, 27, died in Jakarta, Indonesia earlier this month after having an iced coffee with her friends, known as Jessica Kumala and Hani. 
 
 It is believed her drink was laced with cyanide. 
 
 Jessica, who denies involvement in Mirna’s death, was the one who ordered the Vietnamese iced coffee that allegedly killed Mirna, according to police. 
 
 On the day Mirna died, Jessica reportedly arrived early and ordered a sazerac cocktail and a cold Vietnamese coffee. 
 
 Local media reported that Mirna took only a sip of the coffee and complained it tasted bad, before she collapsed and began convulsing, and was confirmed dead a short time later in hospital. 
 
 Following weeks of investigations, Jakarta police arrested Jessica on Saturday morning and named her as a suspect. 
 
 Chief Detective Krishna Murti said they have gathered around 20 witness statements, including evidence from experts, and have also conducted a re-enactment. 
 
 “Jessica’s statement is highly inconsistent with the facts we have gathered,” Mr Murti told reporters. “We will confirm whether her statement as a suspect is still consistent with her one as a witness or if she will give another statement.” 
 
 The arrest comes after Jakarta officers approached Australian Federal Police earlier this month to look into the relationship between Mirna and the friends during their time studying together, reportedly at Sydney’s Billy Blue College of Design and Swinburne University of Technology. 
 
 Mirna continued to work in Australia after her graduation in 2008, moving back to Indonesia in December last year. 
 
 It is understood AFP is considering the request by Jakarta police for assistance. 
 
 Jessica’s lawyer and uncle Yudi Wibowo said she is innocent, despite the media attention on her since Mirna’s death. 
 
 “She is not afraid. She is tough because she has done nothing wrong in relation to the case,” he said earlier this month. 
 
 Yudi has questioned the autopsy process undertaken on Mirna’s body, saying he did not believe she died from cyanide poisoning, as her friend Hani had sipped coffee from the same cup. 
 
 Police confirmed they found cyanide in Mirna’s stomach and in the coffee she drank before her death. 
 
 Yudi has called for a second autopsy to be conducted in another hospital, after it was first completed in Kramat Jati Police Hospital on January 10. 
 
 Mirna recently married her partner, Arief Soemarko. Yudi also denied rumours there was a love triangle between his client and Mirna’s husband. 
 
 “There is nothing like that. Jessica has a boyfriend overseas,” he said, according to local media reports. 
 
 - with AAP 
 
 Follow the conversation on Twitter @newscomauhq | @Megan_Palin ||||| The police have collected sufficient evidence to name a suspect in the death of Wayan Mirna Salihin, 27, who died after drinking cyanide-laced coffee on Jan. 6. 
 
 The police will hold a case expose before prosecutors on Tuesday where investigators will present evidence and information from three experts involved in the investigation, Jakarta Police's general crimes chief Krishna Murti said on Monday. 
 
 The experts are a forensic expert, a forensic psychiatrist and a criminal expert. 
 
 Investigators had collected four items of evidence out of five required to name a suspect in a case according to the Criminal Code, he said. 
 
 "We have the indication, evidence and required documents. We can ignore the suspect's testimony in this case according to the Criminal Code," he told journalists at the Jakarta Police headquarters, while declining to provide details on the suspected poisoner. 
 
 Krishna admitted that police had required extra time and care in determining a suspect to avoid any error in the criminal process. 
 
 "So if any party files for a pretrial motion, we will be ready to handle it," he said. 
 
 Legal and juridical obstacles also hampered investigators in revealing a suspect. For example, police had only received verbal information about the forensic results of the cyanide-laced coffee, but not the formal documents from the National Police's forensic laboratory. 
 
 Results from psychiatric evaluations of Jessica Kumala Wongso, Mirna's friend and a witness, had also needed time to be put into the case dossier, Krishna said. 
 
 Police summoned Hani, Mirna's other friend who was with Mirna at the time of her death, as a witness on Monday. 
 
 Hani had joined newlywed Mirna and Jessica in a cafe in Grand Indonesia Mall in Central Jakarta and witnessed Mirna's having seizures and vomiting hours before Mirna died in hospital. 
 
 Investigators questioned Hani twice on Monday to get clearer information as Krishna said Hani had panicked when Mirna died leading her to forget some details of the incident. 
 
 Hani made no comment to journalists after her second questioning of the day. 
 
 Jakarta Police have sought the help of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in a bid to unveil the truth behind Mirna's suspicious death. The AFP was expected to provide information regarding the relationship between Mirna and her friends, especially Jessica and Hani, as they all studied together in Australia. 
 
 Police took Jessica's servant, identified only as SR, into police protection as a key witness on Friday. 
 
 SR is believed to have disposed of Jessica's ripped pants after Mirna's death at Jessica's request. Police had searched for the pants but to no avail. 
 
 Jessica's lawyer, and uncle, Yudi Wibowo has denied that his niece had any involvement in Mirna's death claiming that they were best friends while studying in Australia. (rin) ||||| 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.
– Indonesian authorities arrested a woman Saturday for allegedly lacing her friend's coffee with a lethal does of cyanide, Australia's News Network reports. Investigators say Jessica Kumala, 27, arrived early at a cafe in central Jakarta and ordered an iced coffee for friend Wayan Mirna Salihin, 27—who soon showed up to join Kumala and a friend. Mirna apparently took a sip, complained it tasted bad, fell over convulsing, and later died at a hospital. "Jessica’s statement is highly inconsistent with the facts we have gathered," says chief detective Krishna Murti. He added that police have assembled 20 witness statements and re-enacted the crime. "We can ignore the suspect's testimony in this case according to the Criminal Code," he tells the Jakarta Post. But Kumala reiterated her innocence this week after being grilled by police for the fifth time, the Jakarta Globe reports. "I do not know where the cyanide came from," she says. "I just want to help police and Mirna's family reveal who was behind all of this." Her uncle and lawyer, Yudi Wibowo, says his niece is innocent and doubts Mirna died from cyanide poisoning. He adds that Mirna tasted the coffee herself, something Kumala denies: "I suffer from a stomach disorder and the coffee is too strong, thus I did not taste it," she says. Wibowo also denied rumors that his niece was having an affair with Mirna's new husband. Mirna and Kumala had studied together in Australia, apparently at a college of design in Sydney.