A Malaysian judge will Thursday deliver a key ruling in the trial of two women accused of the assassination of the half-brother of North Korea’s leader, wi
KUALA LUMPUR – A Malaysian judge will Thursday deliver a key ruling in the trial of two women accused of the assassination of the half-brother of North Korea’s leader, with their families optimistic they will be cleared.
The court will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to support a murder charge against Siti Aisyah from Indonesia and Doan Thi Huong from Vietnam, who allegedly killed Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur airport.
If there is, the trial will continue with the court hearing the women’s defense. But if not, the judge could acquit the women or amend the charge to something less serious than murder, which carries a mandatory death sentence in Malaysia.
Their families insist they did not carry out the Cold War-style hit that shocked the world, and were hopeful they would be acquitted.
Huong “could never be a killer as she had always been a charming, hard-working girl,” Doan Van Thanh, the Vietnamese suspect’s father, told AFP.
The women are accused of killing Kim Jong Nam — the estranged relative of the North’s leader Kim Jong Un — by smearing toxic nerve agent VX on his face in February last year as he waited to board a flight to Macau.
