This May 4, 2001, photo shows Kim Jong Nam, exiled half brother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, in Narita, Japan. Vietnamese woman Doan Thi Huong who is the only suspect in custody for the killing of the North Korean leader's brother Kim Jong Nam pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in a Malaysian court Monday, April 1, 2019 and her lawyer asked for leniency.
Vietnamese Ambassador Le Quy Qunyh said he was unhappy as he expected Huong to be freed immediately.
A Vietnamese woman who is the only suspect in custody for the killing of the North Korean leader’s brother pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in a Malaysian court on Monday and her lawyer asked for leniency.
Doan Thi Huong nodded as a translator read the new charge to her. She had faced a murder charge, which carried the death penalty if she was convicted. The new charge of voluntarily causing injury with a dangerous weapon, VX nerve agent, carries a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in jail.
“She is neither a criminal nor has the propensity to commit a crime,” lawyer Hisyam said.
Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, who was a suspect in the murder case of North Korean leader's half brother Kim Jong Nam, reacts as she leaves the Shah Alam High Court on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia March 14, 2019.
They “exploited her weakness and manipulated her to carry out their evil designs under the camouflage of funny videos and pranks,” he said.
Vietnamese Ambassador Le Quy Qunyh said he was unhappy as he expected Huong to be freed immediately.
“I am not happy with this. I hope that she can be released today. It’s not fair to her. We will keep requesting Malaysia to release her,” he told reporters.
The murder charge had alleged the two women colluded with the four missing North Koreans to murder Kim Jong Nam. The women have said they thought they were taking part in a harmless prank for a TV show when they swiped their hands over his face with an oily substance identified as VX nerve agent. The four North Koreans fled the country the morning of Feb. 13, 2017, after the two women had accosted Kim in a Kuala Lumpur airport terminal.
The High Court judge last August had found there was enough evidence to infer that Aisyah, Huong and the four North Koreans engaged in a “well-planned conspiracy” to kill Kim and had called on the two women to present their defense.
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 politicized.
Kim Jong Nam 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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