KUALA LUMPUR: Two women accused of murdering the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader were trained by North Korean handlers to carry out…
KUALA LUMPUR: Two women accused of murdering the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader were trained by North Korean handlers to carry out “an assassination” using deadly VX nerve agent, Malaysian prosecutors said, wrapping up their case on Thursday.
Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong, a Vietnamese, were charged with having common intent with four North Korean fugitives to kill Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in February 2017.
Kim’s face was smeared with VX, a banned nerve agent developed as a chemical weapon.
“You have to be trained for it… there can be no room for error,” prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin said, likening the “assassination” to something seen “in a James Bond movie”.
The women, both in their 20s, are the only suspects in custody and face the death penalty if convicted. They pleaded not guilty, saying they believed they were acting in a prank reality show and did not know they were handling anything lethal.
Wan Shaharuddin said assassins would have to know the best route for VX to enter the victim’s body, and know that they have to wash the VX off themselves within 15 minutes to avoid being contaminated.
Airport security footage screened in court showed both women heading to a washroom shortly after the assault on Kim.
“If it was a prank, why did you smear not only on his face or on his eyelids, but also in the eye itself?” Wan Shaharuddin said, adding that there was “an element of aggressiveness” involved.
