The court has set a non-parole period of 23 years and 18 years for Kamalasanan and Sam respectively.
MELBOURNE – An Indian-origin woman and her ex-lover have been jailed for more than 20 years by the Australian Supreme Court for fatally poisoning her husband with cyanide-laced orange juice.
The court deemed Arun Kamalasanan, 36, as the “architect” of the poison plot on Friday, and sentenced him to jail for 27 years and to Sofia Sam, 34, for 22 years. The court has also set a non-parole period of 23 years and 18 years for Kamalasanan and Sam respectively.
The duo was found guilty in February for murdering Sofia’s husband Sam Abraham at his home in Epping in Melbourne in October 2015, Australian news agency AAP reported.
Sam’s husband, 33, was found dead, foaming at the mouth and was initially thought to have suffered a heart attack.
However, an autopsy later revealed that he died of cyanide poisoning. Following a lengthy police operation Kamalasanan and Sam were charged, tried and found guilty.
“This is a very serious example of the crime of murder,” Justice Paul Coghlan said while announcing the sentence.
“Sam Abraham was a young man asleep in bed at home with his family when he was killed by the use of poison. I am satisfied that the poison was chosen as your murder weapon in an attempt to avoid detection,” Justice Coghlan said.
Detectives used a long lens to spy on Sam and Kamalasanan for months after the death, watching them meet for lunch and run errands, the report said.
They also found a secret diary that Sam shared with Kamalasanan, illustrating their “deep” feelings for each other.
“It was a major part of the prosecution case that both of you had been in a long-term relationship, notwithstanding you both being married,” Justice Coghlan said.
During the trial, the duo’s diary entries were read to the jurors, who heard whimsical words of their forbidden love, the report said.
The trial heard that Sam moved with her six-year-old son to Australia from India in 2012, while her husband joined them a few months later after working in Dubai.
All the while, prosecutors said, that Sam had had an affair with Kamalasanan, whom she had known for years. Kamalasanan had left his wife and child back in India and moved to Melbourne in mid 2013.
“Both Sofia and Arun had a motive to kill Sam. They both wanted to be together,” prosecutor Kerri Judd told the trial.
The duo had met at the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala where they studied science.
