North Korean embassy confirms Kim Chol country’s citizen — Investigating officer

SHAH ALAM: The North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur had confirmed in February this year that Kim Chol was a citizen of that country, the High Court here heard yesterday.

Sepang/ KLIA district police police headquarters senior investigating officer, ASP Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz said he had personally obtained the confirmation letter on this and on Kim Chol’s passport from the embassy on Feb 17, 2017.

“It was confirmed that the deceased was Kim Chol with a People’s Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) passport no. 836410070 and the date of birth as June 10, 1970,” he said when questioned by deputy public prosecutor Muhamad Iskandar Ahmad during the examinationin-chief.

Wan Azirul Nizam, the ninth prosecution witness, was testifying at the trial of Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, 28, jointly charged with four others still at large. with the murder of Kim Chol, 45, at the departure hall of Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) at 9am on Feb 13, this year.

The witness said from the investigation, the air passenger manifests at klia2 and at the Malaysia Immigration Department showed that Kim Chol had entered Malaysia on Feb 6, 2017.

To another question from the DPP, he said Siti Aisyah was only recorded as exiting Malaysia on Jan 21, 2017 via klia2, while Doan was recorded as having entered the country on Feb 4, 2017 through klia2 Gate Server 3.

He said Siti Aisyah was arrested at Flamingo Hotel, Ampang and Doan at klia2, with 11 and 10 case items taken by police officers from the two respectively, and the items then sent to the Department of Chemistry for examination and analysis.

To the question on the four suspects in the murder case who are still at large, Wan Azirul Nizam said due to the lack of personal details on them, police were unable to detain them. However, he added, police had sought the assistance of the Special Branch in Bukit Aman and Interpol to trace them.

On the man by the name of Ri Jong-Chol who was arrested in the case, the witness said Ri was later released as there was no evidence to show he was involved, and was later deported.

Questioned by DPP Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin on another man, Muhammad Farid Jalaludin, the witness said he was one of those detained but was given a court bond. Based on the investigation, Muhammad Farid and Siti Aisyah were lovers, he said.

Questioned by Wan Shaharuddin whether his investigation was biased, Wan Azirul Nizam said it was not as he took into consideration all aspects, namely the prosecution witnesses and the statements of both accused, besides viewing and comparing the CCTV recordings at the scene of the incident with the CCTV recordings requested by counsel.

To a question from Muhamad Iskandar , the witness said he sent the case items like blood, nail and body hair samples and clothing to the Toxicology, DNA and Chemical Weapons Divisions of the Department of Chemistry on Feb 16 for analysis, but a grey sleeveless dress and a scarf believed to have been worn by Siti Aisyah were sent to the department on Sept 20. — Bernama