ZCZC
BFF-04
MALAYSIA-NKOREA-VIETNAM-TRIAL-CRIME
Vietnamese woman in Kim Jong Nam murder case freed
KUALA LUMPUR, May 3, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A Vietnamese woman who had been
accused of assassinating the North Korean leader’s half-brother was freed
from prison Friday, ending legal proceedings over the brazen killing after an
often bizarre two-year saga.
Kim Jong Nam, the estranged relative of Kim Jong Un and once seen as the
heir apparent to the North’s leadership, died in agony after having his face
smeared with a banned nerve agent as he waited at Kuala Lumpur airport in
February, 2017.
The sensational killing made headlines around the world, and sparked a
furious diplomatic row as Seoul accused Pyongyang of an elaborate plot to
murder a figure who had spent years in exile and been critical of his
family’s rule.
Doan Thi Huong from Vietnam and Indonesian Siti Aisyah were arrested after
being spotted on CCTV approaching Kim but always denied murder, insisting
they were tricked into carrying out the hit by North Korean agents who said
it was a prank for a reality TV show and fled Malaysia after the killing.
The women went on trial, but in March prosecutors dropped the murder charge
against Aisyah after diplomatic pressure and she flew home.
Then last month they withdrew murder charges against Huong, who pleaded
guilty to a reduced count of “causing injury” and was told she would be
released in May at the end of her sentence.
More than two years after her arrest, the 30-year-old former hair salon
worker was freed from prison outside the Malaysian capital at about 7:20 am
(2320 GMT Thursday), her lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik told AFP.
Journalists waiting outside the jail saw a van and a car with tinted
windows race past, and a court official at the scene also confirmed Huong had
been released.
She was expected to head to an immigration office in administrative capital
Putrajaya to sort out documentation, before flying to Vietnam in the evening.
– ‘True killers escaped justice’ –
While there is relief for the women, no one else is in custody over the
murder and those behind the plot are unlikely to ever be punished.
“The assassins have not been brought to justice,” said Hisyam, adding the
women’s legal teams consistently argued that four North Koreans who fled
Malaysia after the killing, and were charged in absentia, were the real
murderers.
The women were arrested after they were captured on airport CCTV cameras
walking up behind Kim as he waited for a flight, and one was seen clasping
her hands over his face.
Kim, who fell from grace in the North after a bizarre attempt to visit
Tokyo Disneyland, died in agony shortly afterwards, his face smeared with
poison.
The women, who faced death by hanging if convicted of murder, went on trial
in October 2017 but the case was slow-moving due to the large number of
witnesses and appeals from the defence teams.
The defence stage of the trial had been due to get under way in March
before prosecutors suddenly dropped charges against Aisyah, 27, following
intense diplomatic pressure from the Indonesian government.
Vietnam then stepped up pressure for Huong’s murder charge to be dropped.
Their initial request was refused, but at the start of April prosecutors
offered her a reduced charge, paving the way for her release.
The assassination sparked a furious row between North Korea and Malaysia,
previously one of nuclear-armed Pyongyang’s few allies, and prompted both
countries to expel each other’s ambassadors.
Ties have improved in recent times however with Malaysia saying it plans to
reopen its embassy in Pyongyang, which was closed shortly after the murder.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0832 hrs