Defence Team Urge Malaysian Court to Acquit Women Charged with Kim Jong Nam’s Murder

 

KUALA LUMPUR – Defence Lawyers for Siti Aisyah, 26, and Doan Thi Huong, 29, the two women charged with murdering Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, argued for their acquittal Wednesday as the court is set to rule on the prosecution’s case next month.

In their closing arguments on the 40th day of the trial, the defence lawyers for Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong told the High Court that the killing was a political assassination undertaken by North Korea and that their clients were tricked into thinking they were shooting prank videos.

Aisyah from Indonesia and Huong from Vietnam have pleaded not guilty to killing Kim on Feb 13, 2017 by swiping his face with VX nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s budget terminal.

They were charged with having “common intention” with four North Koreans — Ri Ji Hyon, Ri Jae Nam, Hong Song Hac and O Jong Gil — to murder him. The four fled the country within hours and are now on an Interpol wanted list.

The prosecution, which called its last witness in April, will sum up their case on Thursday based on the testimonies of 34 witnesses who took the stand in the trial that began last October in Shah Alam, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

The prosecution’s case rested mainly on the airport security camera footage that captured the presence of both women and the four North Korean suspects at the airport and the fact that traces of VX and its by-products were found on the women’s clothing and in Huong’s fingernail clippings.

Judge Azmi Ariffin is expected to fix sometime next month for a decision on whether to acquit the two women or call them to enter defence.

“This is a political assassination undertaken by North Korea. It is obvious. It is equally obvious that the killers were the North Koreans,” Huong’s lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik said.

Aisyah’s lawyer Gooi Soon Seng said the prosecution failed to establish motive for the murder and took a “simplistic attitude” by relying on traces of VX by-product found on the grey sleeveless top Aisyah was seen in from the airport security camera on the day of the crime.

He implored the judge to “look at the bigger picture”, noting how Kim — the eldest son of the late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung and once considered his possible successor — had feared for his life after his younger half-brother was installed as leader.

“The involvements of the North Korean embassy were not marginal value and the roles played by them cannot be dissected from the case,” he added, referring to airport CCTV evidence that showed an embassy official and an North Korean Air Koryo official helping their four compatriots flee Malaysia after the murder.

Police witnesses had also testified about not receiving cooperation from the embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

Aisyah’s defense relied on the fact that there was no clear video footage showing her swiping Kim Jong Nam’s face, unlike Huong. A blurry image of somebody whom the prosecution identified as Aisyah could only be seen hurrying away from Kim.

Gooi said the video evidence and the traces of VX byproducts found on the grey top, “may provide a number of rays but none of them…could clear away the darkness of the prosecution’s case.”

He said there was no DNA evidence to prove the grey top belonged to Aisyah.

Huong’s defense was that she has no intention to kill Kim as she has no knowledge that the liquid applied on her by Ri Ji Hyon was deadly.

Like Aisyah, she was supposedly told by the North Korean to be at the airport to shoot a “funny video”.

Lawyers from both women urged the court to consider their conduct before and after the crime. Neither woman changed or disposed of their clothes immediately after the murder, unlike the four North Koreans.

Aisyah went shopping after performing her “prank” and continued to work at a hotel spa in the city centre until she was arrested, while Huong even returned to the same airport two days later — purportedly because Ri Ji Hyong told her there would be another video shoot — and was promptly arrested by the police.

“In our combined 90 years of legal practice, we have not come across a murder case where an accused commits murder in broad daylight and in full view of the CCTV cameras goes back to the scene of the crime two days later in similar circumstances — in broad daylight and in full view of the CCTV cameras,” said Hisyam, one of Huong’s three lawyers.

Both Hisyam and Gooi slammed the police investigating officer, a key prosecution witness, for his “shoddy” investigation where evidence adduced by the defence was not properly verified and some was even dismissed.

The defence also raised the issue of the charge, which Gooi called “vague and defective,” and said the prosecution failed to prove the element of “common intention” with the four North Koreans, especially since it was established in court that Aisyah has never met Ri Ji Hyon, Ri Jae Nam and O Jong Gil.

Similarly, Huong has never met Hong Song Hac and O Jong Gil.

Prior to the trial, Aisyah and Huong also did not know each other.

Wrapping up his argument, Hisyam urged the judge “to act fairly, justly and boldly based on the evidence adduced so that the guilty is punished and the innocent freed.”

 

Source: Bangkok Post, Kyodo News