A woman from the United States, Heather Mack, who participated in the killing of her mother and concealing the body in a suitcase during a Bali holiday in 2014, has been sentenced to 26 years in prison.

In 2015, Mack was convicted in Indonesia and initially sentenced to 10 years, but she was released in 2021.

Upon her return to the US, she was arrested and faced charges of conspiring to kill a US national. Spending the last two years in a Chicago prison awaiting sentencing, Mack, now 28, was granted credit for time served, resulting in a formal sentence of approximately 23 years.

Prosecutors had recommended a 28-year prison term, asserting that Mack and her then-boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, plotted to kill her mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, a wealthy academic, to gain access to a $1.5 million trust fund.

The prosecution claimed that Mack, who was 18 and pregnant at the time of the murder, covered her mother's mouth while Schaefer struck her in the head with a fruit bowl, after which the body was found concealed in a suitcase.

After Wiese-Mack's murder at the hotel, Ms Mack and Mr Schaefer left the suitcase with her remains in the boot of a taxi, prosecutors said. The driver later alerted police.

The couple was later discovered staying at another hotel in Bali.

Mack originally pleaded not guilty to the US charges but changed her plea after a "good" deal was offered to her by prosecutors, who originally sought a longer sentence.

During her sentencing, Wiese-Mack's brother Bill Wiese asked the court to impose the maximum penalty possible, arguing that Mack had not shown remorse for the crime.

"If it were up to me, Heather would spend the rest of her life behind bars," Mr Wiese said.

Mr Schaefer, who is also named in the US indictment, remains imprisoned in Indonesia.

too bad