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Reuters

Agence France-Presse

The Kim Jong-nam murder trial will resume on April 1 after Malaysia’s attorney general on Thursday rejected Vietnam’s request to free a woman accused of killing the half-brother of North Korea’s leader.
Vietnam’s call for Doan Thi Huong’s to be freed came on the back of the release of Indonesian national Siti Aisyah, who was let go after persistent campaigning by Indonesia’s government.
Huong and Siti Aisyah were charged with killing Kim Jong-nam by smearing his face with VX poison, a banned chemical weapon, at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017.
“It’s our complaint that the public prosecution has not acted fairly and justly to Doan Thi Huong,” said her lawyer Hisyam Teh, who asked for an adjournment on the grounds that his client was unwell.




Teh told the court the rejection of Vietnam’s request was “perverse” and a case of discrimination, as the attorney general had favoured one party over another, considering the court had ordered both to enter their defence.
Vietnam’s ministers of justice and foreign affairs were communicating with their Malaysian counterparts to secure his client’s release, Teh added.
Prosecutors had sprung a surprise on Monday by asking the court to drop the charge against Siti Aisyah and free her. The Indonesian embassy flew her back to Jakarta the same day, where she was received with a jubilant welcome.

After the ruling, Huong was seen sobbing as she spoke with Vietnamese embassy officials, before being whisked away by police.
The trial featured airport video recordings of two women allegedly assaulting Kim Jong Nam while he prepared to check in for a flight.
In one, a woman identified as Huong puts her hands on Kim’s face, while a blurry image shows someone the prosecution identified as Siti Aisyah hurrying away.
Teh rejected speculation that Siti Aisyah’s release was due to a lack of video evidence against her, saying the court had already established a case against both.

“So it makes no difference whatsover if Doan’s image was caught on the CCTV camera, none at all,” he said.
Defence lawyers have maintained the women were pawns in an assassination orchestrated by North Korean agents. The North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur was defaced with graffiti just hours before the trial was to resume.
Interpol had issued a red notice for four North Koreans identified as suspects by Malaysian police who had left the country hours after the murder.

In Vietnam, Huong’s stepmother Nguyen Thi Vy said the decision saddened her.
“I don’t understand why the other girl was released, but not my daughter,” Vy told Reuters after the decision. “They were charged with the same thing, it’s such an injustice.”
Huong’s father, who had washed bed sheets in anticipation of her homecoming after the release of Siti Aisyah, said he was saddened his daughter remained in custody. He was sure the Vietnamese government’s plea would work.

“I am very sad. The government gave us the best support but the other side could not solve it, what can we do,” said Doan Van Thanh from his rural village in northern Vietnam.
Thanh insisted his daughter was tricked into Kim’s murder and believed she thought she was part of a prank for TV.
“I still believe Huong is innocent,” the parking lot attendant said at his home surrounded by rice paddies in Nam Dinh province.
He implored his daughter not to lose hope. “Please be patient, the Vietnamese government will support your release,” he said.
Additional reporting by Associated Press


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Kim Jong-nam

Kim Jong-nam murder trial: Vietnamese suspect Doan Thi Huong will continue trial after prosecutors reject her request for release

Doan Thi Huong, centre, arrives at Shah Alam High Court in Malaysia on Thursday. Photo: AP

Joseph Doan Van Thanh, father of Doan Thi Huong, the Vietnamese suspect in Kim Jong Nam's murder, sits in his house in Nam Dinh province, Vietnam March 14, 2019. REUTERS/Kham

Villagers gather to welcome Siti Aisyah, formerly accused of killing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's estranged half brother, in Rancasumur, Indonesia, Tuesday, March 12, 2019. A chaotic crush of jubilant villagers and reporters has greeted the young Indonesian woman who was freed after Malaysia dropped a prosecution that alleged she was a trained killer who murdered the estranged half brother of North Korea's leader two years ago. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

epa07435316 Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong (C) who was detained in connection with the death of Kim Jong-Nam, escorted by Malaysian police officers arrive at the Shah Alam High Court, Shah Alam, Malaysia, 14 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

JAPAN OUT NO INTERNET NO SALES NO BROADCASTING (FILES) Picture dated 30 January 2007 and taken by Japan's newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, shows Kim Jong-Nam, 35, eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il smiling in southern China's casino haven of Macau. The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il said he opposes the hereditary transfer of power to his brother in the communist state, in an interview with Japan's TV Asahi broadcast on October 12, 2010. "Personally I am opposed to the hereditary transfer to a third generation of the family," Kim Jong-Nam said, speaking in Korean with the Asahi TV Network in an interview conducted in Beijing on October 9. AFP PHOTO / YOMIURI SHIMBUN / AFP PHOTO / YOMIURI SHIMBUN / YOMIURI SHIMBUN

Kim Jong-nam murder trial: Vietnam asks Malaysia to free assassination suspect Doan Thi Huong

Vietnamese murder suspect Doan Thi Huong. Photo: EPA

Siti Aisyah (L) from Indonesia smiles beside her lawyer in Kuala Lumpur on March 11, 2019, following her release from detention. The case against Aisyah, one of two women being charged with the February 2017 murder of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was dropped earlier in the day while Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong remains on trial. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

A man believed to be Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, looks at a battery of photographers as he gets off a police van to get on board an airplane heading to Beijing at Narita International Airport, northeast of Tokyo, Friday, May 4, 2001. He was deported to China after being detained for allegedly entering Japan with a forged passport. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

Chaos, jubilation and chants of ‘Kim Jong-nam’ as Indonesian villagers welcome home  Siti Aisyah, ex-suspect in killing of North Korean leader’s half brother

A crush of media and well-wishers greet Siti Aisyah, centre, as she arrives at her home village of Rancasumur on Tuesday evening. Photo: AP

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Malaysian prosecutors have rejected Vietnam’s request to free Doan Thi Huong, who is accused of killing the half-brother of North Korea’s leader


Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong, who is accused of killing Kim Jong-nam, will continue trial on April 1 after prosecutors declined a request to free her.


Vietnam

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Malaysia

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