Shah Alam: The Malaysian court yesterday announced that the Vietnamese woman accused of assassinating Kim Jong Nam, North Korean leader’s half-brother, will walk free next month after pleading guilty to a lesser charge.
The woman Doan Thi Huong has been on trial for the murder with a nerve agent and she was sentenced to three years and four months in jail from her arrest in February 2017. But her legal team said that with usual sentence reductions, she would be released next month.
According to media reports, the decision was taken after authorities last month rejected a request for her murder charge to be dropped. The attorney-general had agreed to withdraw the charge against Siti Aisyah, her Indonesian co-defendant.
A new charge was filed against Huong and she pleaded guilty. The charge said that she had purposely caused injury to Kim by employing dangerous means in attacking him with VX at Kuala Lumpur airport. Speaking about her release, Huong told reporters that it was a fair sentence. She thanked the Malaysian and Vietnamese governments.
No one would be facing murder charges for the death of Kim Jong Un’s estranged relative. He was once considered heir apparent to the North Korean leadership, but fell out of favour.
There has been various rumours and accusation against the North Korea in connection to his death. South Korea had also accused the North behind hit.
In Malaysia, a murder conviction carries a mandatory penalty of death by hanging, but the government vowed last year to scrap capital punishment.