‘Two accused involved in prank’
> 4 unidentified people supervised act which killed Jong-Nam, court told
SHAH ALAM: The Kim Jong-Nam murder trial opened yesterday with the prosecution team saying it aimed to prove that the two women accused were involved in a “prank exercise” with four others who were unidentified resulting in the death of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
Deputy public prosecutor Muhamad Iskandar Ahmad ( pix) said the four individuals supervised the alleged act committed by both women who used the highly toxic chemical, classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations to kill JongNam.
Muhamad Iskandar said his team would provide evidence that the duo had approached the victim at klia2 and wiped the poison on his eyes and face.
“The prosecution will rely on direct, circumstantial, scientific and documented evidence provided by specialists and several other related evidence that will be produced before the court to link the accused and the four others with the death of Jong-Nam,” he said.
The prosecution then began making its case with testimonies from the first four witnesses who last saw Jong-Nam alive at klia2 in Sepang.
The first witness was L/Cpl Mohd Zulkarnain Sanudin, who was stationed at klia2, during the Feb 13 incident.
“I was approached by a Malay woman, who works at the airport information counter and a ‘plump man with a chubby face’ whose race I was unable to tell, seeking to lodge a police report.
“However, after asking him some details, he said he wanted to go to the clinic first,” he told the packed trial at the High Court.
As they headed to the clinic, Mohd Zulkarnain said Jong-Nam told him his vision was beginning to blur and he said, “Sir, walk slow, my eyes blur, I cannot see.”
Mohd Zulkarnain told the court he then headed to the Safety Operations Centre to report the matter before going back to the clinic to obtain the man’s details.
“However, in my report I wrote that he (Jong-Nam) was a South Korean citizen as I did not comprehend the meaning of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPR) (North Korea) written in his passport.”
Airport information counter staff Juliana Idris told the court that Jong-Nam used the word “attacked” when the deceased met her at the klia2 information counter.
Mohd Zulkarnain and Juliana are the first four among 153 witnesses expected to be called during the month-long trial.
The third and fourth witnesses who testified were klia2’s Menara Clinic medical assistant Rabiatul Adawiyah Mohd Sofi and Dr Nik Mohd Adzrul Ariff Raja Azlan regarding Jong-Nam’s treatment and condition upon arriving at the clinic.
Earlier, Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, 29, and Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, had pleaded not guilty when the charges were first read out to them by the court interpreter.
Siti and Doan, along with four others still at large, were charged with the murder of Jong-Nam, 45, at the klia2 departure hall at 9am on Feb 13 this year.