Australian expert Professor Beng Beng Ong who testified in alleged coffee murder case to be deported

An Australian expert who testified that a woman was unlikely to have died from cyanide poisoning will be deported and banned from Indonesia for six months.

Jessica Wongso, who prosecutors allege poisoned her friend with a Vietnamese iced coffee. Photo: Tatan Syuflana

Wongso appears in court in Jakarta. Photo: Tatan Syuflana

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An Australian expert who testified that Indonesian woman Wayan Mirna Salihin was unlikely to have died from cyanide poisoning after drinking a Vietnamese iced coffee will be deported and banned from entering Indonesia for six months.

Professor Beng Beng Ong, a forensic pathologist and senior lecturer at Queensland University's School of Medicine, had cast doubt over the central plank of the prosecution's premeditated murder case on Monday, when he questioned whether Ms Salihin had been fatally poisoned.

Ms Salihin died on January 6. Prosecutors allege her friend Jessica Kumala Wongso, an Australian permanent resident, spiked her Vietnamese iced coffee with cyanide at the upmarket Olivier restaurant in Grand Indonesia shopping mall. Ms Wongso has maintained her innocence.

However hours after Professor Ong questioned in the Central Jakarta District Court whether Ms Salihin was fatally poisoned, he was intercepted at Jakarta's international airport by immigration officers who confiscated his passport at about 4am on September 6.

The head of Central Jakarta immigration, Tato Juliadin, said Professor Ong's mistake had been to testify in court when he entered Indonesia on a free visa on arrival, which is for tourists.

"He should have used a temporary stay visa instead. A free visa cannot be used for work," Mr Juliadin said.

"(Beng Beng Ong) entered Indonesia using a free visa so we will deport him and he will be banned from entering Indonesia for six months."

Ms Wongso has been accused of the premeditated murder of Ms Salihin, with whom she studied at the Billy Blue College of Design in Sydney. The maximum sentence for premeditated murder is the death penalty although the Indonesian government assured this would not be imposed when it requested assistance with the investigation from the Australian Federal police.

Despite Professor Ong's deportation, his testimony in the case will stand.

"I would say the death was very likely not to have been caused by cyanide," he told the Central Jakarta District Court on Monday.

However he said no autopsy had been performed to determine the cause of death, with the only examination the opening of the abdomen to collect toxicology specimens.

"There was no post mortem autopsy to rule out the natural cause of death and the toxicology is not conclusive of poisoning," he said.

"I would say the cause of death is uncertain or not determined."

Professor Ong testified the low level of cyanide detected in Ms Salihin's stomach was not consistent with fatal poisoning and symptoms of cyanide poisoning typically developed about 30 minutes after ingestion, not the two minutes claimed by the prosecution.

"There was no post mortem performed, there was a delay in (obtaining) the toxicology specimen, there was a contradictory toxicology result and therefore the cause of death cannot be concluded," Professor Ong said.

The circumstances surrounding the death of Ms Salihin have obsessed many Indonesians. There are all the plot points of a soap opera - two beautiful women from wealthy backgrounds, an alleged murder and an unknown motive. Vietnamese iced coffees have enjoyed a ghoulish spike in popularity.

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Vietnamese coffee. Stronger than you think," a billboard says outside a South Jakarta outlet of MonViet, a Vietnamese restaurant chain.

A MonViet employee insisted this was a coincidence and the phraseology came from a song. But she said many customers ordered iced Vietnamese coffee after the Jessica case because they were curious about it. "Sometimes customers joke: 'Does your Vietnamese coffee contain cyanide or not?'

Professor Ong, who was the first witness for the defence, told the court he had been an expert forensic witness in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Australia. He said he would expect a "very high level of cyanide" to be found in the stomach of someone who had been fatally poisoned - in some cases more than 1000 milligrams per litre.

The senior forensic pathologist said he would also expect cyanide to be detected in the bowels and liver.

However Professor Ong said just 0.2 milligrams of cyanide had been detected in Ms Salihin's stomach and tests on her bowel and liver came back negative.

He also said symptoms of cyanide poisoning typically occur about 30 minutes after it has been ingested, which did not fit with Ms Salihin collapsing two minutes after drinking the allegedly spiked iced coffee.

"I wouldn't suspect it was cyanide, I would consider other causes, including natural disease," Professor Ong said.

The forensic pathologist spent time in Indonesia in 2002 assisting the Australian Federal Police with post mortems of the victims of the first Bali bombing.

The head of Central Jakarta immigration, Mr Juliadin, said Professor Ong had only held a cultural visa at the time, but he was assisted by the Australian government and had not appeared in public.

"It was discretion," he said.

Mr Juliadin said Professor Ong would return to Australia via Singapore on Wednesday. His passport would be returned to him on "departure day".

"He did not commit a crime however he violated the visa regulation." he said.

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The story Australian expert Professor Beng Beng Ong who testified in alleged coffee murder case to be deported first appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald.

Source: Australian expert Professor Beng Beng Ong who testified in alleged coffee murder case to be deported