Murder trial moves to high-security lab
Clothing worn by defendants viewed during visit to Chemistry Dept
PETALING JAYA: The trial of two women accused of murdering the North Korean leader’s half-brother moved to the high-security chemistry laboratory here to view clothing worn by the defendants and contaminated by a nerve agent.
The visit to the lab in the Chemistry Department here came after a chemist Dr S. Raja last week testified there were traces of VX on the women’s clothes.
The testimony by Dr Raja, who is the department’s head of Chemical Weapon Centre, was the first evidence directly linking the women to the poison used to kill Kim Jong-nam as he waited at a crowded klia2 airport in Sepang.
Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, in their 20s, are accused of smearing VX on Kim’s face in February in a hit that stunned the world.
The women, who were arrested a few days after the killing and face death by hanging if convicted, have pleaded not guilty to murdering the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong-un as he waited to board a flight to Macau.
The judge, prosecutors and defence law- yers headed to the laboratory along with Dr Raja yesterday.
A member of Aisyah’s legal team put on a lab coat, mask and gloves and entered a room to examine clothes, nail clippings and blood samples, her lawyer Gooi Soon Seng said.
“The whole process was to identify the exhibits,” he said.
Gooi added that a blazer said in court to have been worn by Jong-nam and to be con- taminated with VX was not shown to them.
The trial was supposed to move back to Shah Alam High Court, and resume in the afternoon. But it was postponed until today after Dr Raja, who was due to be questioned by the defence, complained of feeling tired.
The murder sparked a fierce row between Malaysia and North Korea, which is suspected of ordering the hit. Pyongyang denies the allegation. — AFP