Kim Jong-nam assassination - Two women facing death penalty as police set to charge
TWO women are facing the death penalty after they are charged with the murder of Kim Jong-un’s half brother Kim Jong-nam as new details about the case emerge.
Police said the women smeared VX nerve agent, a chemical on the UN’s list of weapons of mass destruction, on Kim Jong-nam’s face in an assault recorded on Kuala Lumpur airport security cameras on February 13.
The women said they had been paid to take part in what they believed was a prank for a reality TV show.
US and South Korean officials believe Kim, 45, whose father was feared leader Kim Jong-Il, was the victim of an assassination orchestrated by North Korea.
He had criticised his family’s regime and his half brother Kim Jong-un in the past and had been living in exile, under Beijing’s protection, in the Chinese special administrative region of Macau.
Malaysian police arrested Vietnamese woman Doan Thi Huong and Indonesian woman Siti Aishah in the days after the attack, who is believed to have been celebrating her 25th birthday with a night out just hours before the murder.
A North Korean man is also being held while seven other North Koreans are wanted in connection with the Cold War-style assassination.
Attorney general Mohamed Apandi Ali said the North Korean in custody will not be charged yet, with his remand period ending on Friday.
Chilling moment allegedly shows Kim Jong-nam assassination
South Korean intelligence officials told MPs in Seoul four of the seven North Korean suspects are Pyongyang spies.
Britain’s ambassador to Malaysia, Matthew Rycroft, urged Malaysia yesterday to share evidence of the attack with the United Nations’ Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which could take action against North Korea.
Security camera footage, which has been released to the media, showed two women assaulting Kim Jong Nam in the departure hall of Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and the victim stumbling into a medical clinic.
He died within 20 minutes of the assault.
The attorney general confirmed the women will be formally charged on Wednesday under section 302 of the pencal code, which carries the death penalty.