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Kyodo

The Vietnamese woman who plea-bargained and got 40 months in jail instead of the death penalty over the killing of the estranged half-brother of North Korea leader Kim Jong-un, will be freed on May 3, her lawyer said on Saturday.
The lawyer, Naran Singh, said the Malaysia prisons department has confirmed Doan Thi Huong, 30, will be released on that day from the women’s prison in Kajang, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

Kim Jong-nam was killed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on February 13, 2017.
Huong, charged with murder more than two years ago, pleaded guilty on April 1 to a lesser charge of “causing hurt”, punishable by up to 10 years in jail.
The unexpected offer from the prosecution came following intense lobbying by the Vietnamese government.
It stepped up pressure after Huong’s co-accused Siti Aisyah, 27, from Indonesia was suddenly freed last month following her government’s campaigning to Malaysia’s attorney general.
The attorney general withdrew the murder charge against Aisyah but not Huong, prompting criticism of unfairness and discrimination.
Following the plea deal, Shah Alam High Court judge Azmi Ariffin sentenced Huong to three years and four months in jail, running from the date of her arrest on February 15, 2017.
But she is entitled to a one-third reduction in her prison term under Malaysian law, given that she has been detained for more than two years and shown good behaviour.
Will North Korea try to assassinate Doan Thi Huong and Siti Aisyah, the Vietnamese and Indonesian linked to Kim Jong-nam’s murder?
Aisyah and Huong were initially charged with murdering Kim Jong-un’s paternal half-brother by smearing the toxic nerve agent VX on his face at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
They claimed they thought they were taking part in a television-related prank. If convicted, they would have faced a mandatory sentence of death by hanging.


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

Kim Jong-nam

Doan Thi Huong, Vietnamese woman linked to Kim Jong-nam murder, to be freed on May 3

Doan Thi Huong being escorted by police from a court in Shah Alam, Malaysia on April 1, 2019. Photo: Xinhua

epa07435465 Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong who was detained in connection with the death of Kim Jong-Nam, cries as she is escorted by Malaysian police officers leaving 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

Still from security cameras at Kuala Lumpur’s international airport of Kim Jong-nam after he was attacked in February 2017. Photo: AP

Kim Jong-nam murder suspect explains how North Koreans recruited her for ‘assassination disguised as prank TV show’

Suspect Doan Thi Huong’s friend had introduced her to a ‘Korean man’ wanting to make a ‘funny video’ - that turned out to be an assassination attempt, a court has heard

epa06567648 Siti Aisyah (C) of Indonesia, who is being detained in connection with the death of Kim Jong-Nam, is escorted by Malaysian police officers as she arrives at the Shah Alam High Court, in Shah Alam, Malaysia, 27 February 2018. Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam and Siti Aisyah of Indonesia are charged with murder under Section 302 of the penal code, which carries mandatory death sentence if found guilty, and have pleaded not guilty during the murder trial in connection with the death of Kim Jong-nam, half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. EPA-EFE/AHMAD YUSNI

epa05804924 A South Korean watches a TV news report allegedly showing the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's half-brother Kim Jong-nam at the airport of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at an office in Seoul, South Korea, 20 February 2017. According to reports, the North Korean embassy in Malaysia asked Malaysian authorities to hand over the body of 46-year-old North Korean named Kim Chol, who was allegedly assassinated at Kuala Lumpur's international airport in Malaysia on 13 February and whose body has been kept at the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital since the incident. Media reports state that Kim Chol, an alias apparently used by Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was attacked by two women with chemical sprays. EPA/JEON HEON-KYUN

Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong (centre) is escorted by police as she arrives for a court hearing at Shah Alam High Court in Shah Alam, Malaysia, in February. She and another woman are accused of wiping VX on the face of Kim Jong-nam in an assassination widely thought to have been orchestrated by North Kore. Photo: AP

Kim Jong-nam murder trial: Vietnamese suspect Doan Thi Huong accepts reduced charge, will be freed in May

Doan Thi Huong, who was a suspect in the murder of Kim Jong-nam. Photo: Reuters

FILE - This May 4, 2001, file photo shows Kim Jong Nam, exiled half brother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, in Narita, Japan. Kim Jong Nam, 46, was targeted Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia, and later died on the way to the hospital according to a Malaysian government official. Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi says the identity of Kim Jong Nam, who was killed last month, was confirmed with the DNA sample from one of his children. (AP Photos/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)

‘My life is in danger,’ Kim Jong-nam told friend six months before he was assassinated

File photo of Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Photo: AFP

epaselect epa06567649 Siti Aisyah (2-L) of Indonesia, who is being detained in connection with the death of Kim Jong-Nam, is escorted by Malaysian police officers as she arrives at the Shah Alam High Court, in Shah Alam, Malaysia, 27 February 2018. Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam and Siti Aisyah of Indonesia are charged with murder under Section 302 of the penal code, which carries mandatory death sentence if found guilty, and have pleaded not guilty during the murder trial in connection with the death of Kim Jong-nam, half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. EPA-EFE/AHMAD YUSNI

epa06567647 Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam (R), who is being detained in connection with the death of Kim Jong-Nam, is escorted by Malaysian police officers as she arrives at the Shah Alam High Court, in Shah Alam, Malaysia, 27 February 2018. Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam and Siti Aisyah of Indonesia are charged with murder under Section 302 of the penal code, which carries mandatory death sentence if found guilty, and have pleaded not guilty during the murder trial in connection with the death of Kim Jong-nam, half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. EPA-EFE/AHMAD YUSNI

Poison VX found on clothes of women accused of Kim Jong-nam murder

Malaysian chemist government chemist Raja Subramaniam said he found pure VX on a T-shirt that Vietnamese woman Doan Thi Huong Huong wore at the time of the attack. File photo: Handout

A still image from a CCTV footage appears to show a man purported to be Kim Jong Nam (circled in red) talking to airport staff, after being accosted by a woman in a white shirt, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia on February 13, 2017. FUJITV/via Reuters TV. ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS VIDEO WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. THE FOOTAGE WAS OBTAINED BY FUJI TV. DO NOT CROP OR OBSCURE FUJITV LOGO. ANY VOICED PACKAGES USING THIS MATERIAL MUST ATTRIBUTE IT VERBALLY TO FUJI TV. REUTERS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THIS VIDEO. EDITORIAL USE ONLY. CANNOT RE-USE AFTER 30 DAYS FROM TRANSMISSION WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM FUJITV. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE. JAPAN OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN JAPAN.

Life in the shadows: how Kim Jong-nam assassination sheds light on Malaysia’s hidden world of female migrants

Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong and Indonesian Siti Aishah have been charged over Kim Jong-nam’s assassination. Photo: Reuters

(FILES) This file photo taken on March 1, 2017 shows Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong (L) being escorted after a court appearance with Indonesian national Siti Aisyah at the magistrates' court in Sepang for their alleged role in the assassination of Kim Jong-Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. Malaysia's underground community of undocumented female workers was thrust into the spotlight when news emerged that Kim Jong-Nam was assassinated by the two women migrants using lethal nerve agent VX on February 13 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Little is known about them, with police saying that Huong worked at an "entertainment outlet" while Aisyah was a masseuse at a spa, but immigration experts say the secrecy surrounding their lives illustrates the clandestine existence led by thousands of undocumented Southeast Asian women migrants. / AFP PHOTO / Mohd RASFAN / TO GO WITH Malaysia-NKorea-labour-migration-social, FOCUS by M JEGATHESAN and Elizabeth LAW

Kim Jong-nam assassination trial: defence lawyer says Indonesian Siti Aisyah thought it was all for a prank television show

Indonesian Siti Aisyah – accused of killing Kim Jong-nam – is escorted by police as she leaves after a court hearing in Malaysia on Tuesday. Photo: Photo: AP

(FILES) This file photo taken on May 4, 2001 shows Kim Jong-Nam, son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, getting off a bus to board an ANA905 (All Nippon Airways) airplane at Narita airport near Tokyo. Two women pleaded not guilty on October 2, 2017 to murdering Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korea's leader, at the start of their trial in Malaysia over the Cold War-style assassination that shocked the world. / AFP PHOTO / TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA

Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, second from left, is escorted by police as she leaves after a court hearing at Shah Alam court house in Shah Alam, Malaysia, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018. A police witness said Monday that Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half brother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, met with an unidentified Korean American man on a Malaysian resort island four days before he was murdered, as the trial of two women accused of killing him resumed. (AP Photo/Sadiq Asyraf)

FILE - This combination of Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, file photos, shows Indonesian Siti Aisyah, left, and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong escorted by police as they leave a court hearing in Shah Alam, Malaysia, outside Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia’s high-profile trial of two women accused of killing Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half brother of North Korea’s leader resumes Monday, Jan. 22, 2018 after a seven-week recess but defense lawyers said efforts to unfurl the truth have been stymied by missing links. (AP Photo/Daniel Chan)

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Huong, charged with murder more than two years ago, pleaded guilty on April 1 to a lesser charge of ‘causing hurt’, punishable by up to 10 years in prison


Doan Thi Huong, charged with murder more than two years ago, pleaded guilty on April 1 to a lesser charge of ‘causing hurt’, punishable by up to 10 years in prison


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