An Australian expert has had his passport seized and is set to be deported by Indonesian officials after giving evidence in the high-profile case of a woman accused of murdering her friend with a cyanide-laced coffee.
Beng Beng Ong, a forensic pathologist at Queensland University in Brisbane gave evidence at Jessica Kumala Wongso's trial in Jakarta on Monday, casting doubt on the core of the prosecution's case against her - that she killed her friend Wayan Mirna Salihin with a cyanide-laced Vietnamese iced coffee.
Just hours after giving this evidence he was held at Soekarno Hatta Airport at around 4am (7am AEST) on Tuesday morning following allegations he had come to Indonesia on a tourist visa.
"His next step is deportation. He's not detained, but he will be deported," Immigration Office Spokesman Heru Santoso Ananta Yudha told reporters at a late night press conference on Tuesday.
"His flight is at 5 am (local time) to Australia via Singapore. When he's about to fly, his passport will be given back to him. He's been co-operative, that's why he's not arrested."
Mr Yudha said the Australian expert was testifying in court at the request of Wongso's legal team, therefore he should have used a limited stay visa.
Being deported should "teach him a lesson," Mr Yudha said, adding that he will not be allowed back to Indonesia for six months.
In a case that has gripped Indonesia, Wongso, 27, is accused of killing her friend Ms Salihin, also 27, with whom she studied design in Sydney.
Footage taken on the day the two women met up at Olivier restaurant on January 6 shows Wongso re-arranging bags around the drink before eventually clearing the table.
It was during this time prosecutors allege Wongso added the cyanide to the coffee.
A few minutes after drinking it, Mirna collapsed and foamed at the mouth.
But Prof Ong said the level of cyanide found in Ms Salihin's stomach was not consistent with fatal poisoning and that in order to find a cause of death an autopsy should be performed.
In this instance, he said there was no autopsy so a natural cause of death could not be ruled out.
