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Associated Press

Relatives and neighbours of the Indonesian woman accused of killing Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korea’s leader, on Monday were organising an emotional welcome party after murder charges against her were unexpectedly dropped. 
Preparing Siti Aisyah’s favourite spicy beef dish, her aunt Siti Sudarmi said: “We were sure sooner or later she would be freed because she is innocent.”
Malaysia on Monday released Aisyah, 27, from two years of detention following concerted lobbying by the Indonesian government. 

               
Huong, who remains on trial, was distraught following Aisyah’s release. “I am in shock. My mind is blank,” she told reporters after Aisyah left.
The two women had been the only suspects in custody after four North Korean suspects fled the country on the morning of February 13, 2017, when Kim Jong-nam was killed in an airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur.
The trial is set to resume on Thursday, and prosecutors are expected to reply to a request by Huong’s lawyers for the government to withdraw the charge against her as well.

               

               Indonesia’s government lobbied repeatedly for Aisyah’s release. Vietnam has pushed less hard, and recently hosted Kim Jong-un for an official visit and a summit with US President Donald Trump.
The High Court judge discharged Aisyah without an acquittal after prosecutors applied to drop the murder charge against her. They did not give any reason.
Prosecutor Iskandar Ahmad said Aisyah can be charged again if there is fresh evidence, but there are no such plans now.
“I feel very happy,” Aisyah said at a news conference at the Indonesian embassy in Malaysia. “I didn’t expect that today will be my freedom day.”
Indonesia’s government said its continued high-level lobbying resulted in Aisyah’s release. Its foreign ministry said in a statement that she was “deceived and did not realise at all that she was being manipulated by North Korean intelligence.”
It said Aisyah, a migrant worker in Malaysia, never had any intention of killing Kim. 

               
The ministry said that over the past two years, Aisyah’s plight was raised in “every bilateral Indonesia-Malaysia meeting,” including at the presidential level, the vice presidential level and in regular meetings of the foreign minister and other ministers with their Malaysian counterparts.
Aisyah’s release comes just a month before Indonesia’s general election and is seen as a boost to President Joko Widodo, who is seeking re-election.
Aisyah, surrounded by government officials and a mob of reporters at Jakarta’s airport, struggled for words as journalists shouted questions. With a prompt from Indonesia’s law and human rights minister, she thanked the president and other officials for helping secure her release.

               Kim Jong-nam’s accused killers: North Korean puppets or cold-blooded murderers?
“The Malaysian government treated me well, there was no bad treatment at all,” she said. “After this I just want to gather with family.”
Huong’s lawyer, Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, said after the court session that Huong felt Aisyah’s discharge was unfair to her because the judge last year had found sufficient evidence to continue the murder trial against both of them.
“She is entitled to the same kind of consideration as Aisyah,” he said. “We are making representation to the attorney general for Doan to be taken equally … there must be justice.”

               

A High Court judge last August had found there was enough evidence to infer that Aisyah, Huong and the four missing North Koreans engaged in a “well-planned conspiracy” to kill Kim Jong-nam. The defence phase of the trial had been expected to start in January but was delayed until Monday.
Lawyers for the women have previously said that they were pawns in a political assassination with clear links to the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and that the prosecution failed to show the women had any intention to kill. Intent to kill is crucial to a murder charge under Malaysian law.

               
Malaysian officials have never officially accused North Korea and have made it clear they don’t want the trial politicised.
Kim was the eldest son in the current generation of North Korea’s ruling family. He had been living abroad for years but could have been seen as a threat to Kim Jong-un’s rule.


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North Korea: will family violence continue plaguing Kim Jong-un’s daughter Ju-ae and nephew Han-sol?

US still prepared to engage with North Korea after missile test, White House says

As North Korea plots revenge over ‘spy’ extradited to US from Malaysia, assassinations and abductions may be next

Kim Jong-nam

Kim Jong-nam murder trial: Indonesian suspect Siti Aisyah freed after Malaysian authorities drop murder charges

Indonesian Siti Aisyah, third from left, poses for a photo with officials from Indonesian Embassy after a press conference at the embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Monday, March 11, 2019. The Indonesian woman held two years on suspicion of killing North Korean leader's half brother Kim Jong Nam was freed from custody Monday after prosecutors unexpectedly dropped the murder charge against her. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

FILE - In this May 4, 2001 file photo, Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, prepares to board a plane to Beijing at Narita international airport near Tokyo, Japan. Kim was fatally poisoned at Kuala Lumpur's airport on Feb. 13, 2017, in one of the most brazen instances of assassination in recent memory in an attack that authorities said used VX nerve agent. Strong suspicion has fallen on North Korean agents. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)

epaselect epa07428210 Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong (C) who was detained in connection with the death of Kim Jong-Nam, is escorted by Malaysian police officers as they leave the Shah Alam High Court, Shah Alam, Malaysia, 11 March 2019. Doan Thi Huong from Vietnam charged with murder under Section 302 of the penal code, which carries mandatory death sentence if found guilty, pleaded not guilty during the murder trial. EPA-EFE/FAZRY ISMAIL

Indonesian Siti Aisyah, left, smiles with her lawyer Gooi Soon Seng after a press conference at Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Monday, March 11, 2019. The Indonesian woman held two years on suspicion of killing North Korean leader's half brother Kim Jong Nam was freed from custody Monday, March 11, 2019 after prosecutors unexpectedly dropped the murder charge against her. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Indonesian national Siti Aisyah (C) smiles while leaving the Shah Alam High Court, outside Kuala Lumpur on March 11, 2019 after her trial for her alleged role in the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. - An Indonesian woman accused of assassinating the North Korean leader's half-brother was to be freed March 11 after a prosecutor withdrew a murder charge against her, a judge said. (Photo by MOHD RASFAN / AFP)

Indonesian national Siti Aisyah smiles as she leaves the Shah Alam High Court. Photo: AFP

Kim Jong-nam murder trial adjourned again until March

Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, was fatally poisoned at Kuala Lumpur's airport in February 2017. Photo: AP

Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, who is on trial for the killing of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korea's leader, is escorted as she leaves the Shah Alam High Court on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 16, 2018. REUTERS/Lai Seng Sin

Indonesian Siti Aisyah, center, escorted by police, leaves Shah Alam High Court after a court hearing in Shah Alam, Malaysia on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018. Siti and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, charged with murdering North Korea leader's half brother Kim Jong Nam, were back in Malaysia court for a procedural hearing. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

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Indonesia’s government said its continual high-level lobbying resulted in Siti Aisyah’s release  


Indonesia’s government said its continual high-level lobbying resulted in Siti Aisyah’s release.
