Mom’s arrest over killing stuns family

JAKARTA: Family and former neighbours of an Indonesian woman suspected of involvement in the audacious killing of the North Korean leader’s half-brother in Malaysia are stunned by the arrest of a young mother who they say was a polite and quiet “nice girl”.

Siti Aisyah, 25, is one of three arrested by Malaysian police for possible involvement in the alleged assassination of Kim Jong Nam.

Between 2008 and 2011 she and her then-husband lived in a modest dwelling with flaking red paint in a narrow alley of the densely populated Tambora neighbourhood in western Jakarta.

Her former father-in-law Tjia Liang Kiong, who lives in a nearby middle-class neighbourhood, last saw Aisyah on January 28.

He described the mother as a “very kind, polite and respectful person”.

“I was shocked to hear that she was arrested for murdering someone,” he said.

“I don’t believe that she would commit such a crime or what the media say.”

The three suspects, Aisyah, a woman carrying a Vietnamese passport and a man said to be Aisyah’s Malaysian boyfriend, were arrested separately on Wednesday and Thursday. The suspects were identified using surveillance videos from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, where Kim Jong Nam suddenly fell ill on Monday morning. – AP