Woman accused of North Korea airport murder plot is released

AN INDONESIAN woman held for two years on suspicion of killing the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s half brother has been freed.

Siti Aisyah was accused of smearing VX nerve agent on the face of Kim Jong Nam at an airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur in February 2017.

Ms Aisyah – accused alongside Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong – was discharged after prosecutors asked to withdraw the charge against her.

She was quickly ushered out of the courtroom wearing a black traditional Malay dress and headscarf, telling reporters: “I feel so happy. I did not expect that today I would be released.”

She added that she was healthy and had been treated well in prison.

Prosecutor Iskandar Ahmad said the discharge not amounting to acquittal means Ms Aisyah can be recharged but there are no such plans for now.

The two young women were accused of smearing the nerve agent on Mr Kim’s face in an airport terminal, but previously said they thought they were taking part in a prank for a TV show.

They were the only suspects in custody after four North Korean suspects fled the country the same morning Mr Kim was killed.

Gooi Soon Seng, Siti Aisyah’s lawyer, said they were happy with the outcome but maintained that his client was “merely a scapegoat”.

“I still believe that North Korea had something to do with it,” Gooi said.

Indonesia’s government said its continual high-level lobbying resulted in Ms Aisyah’s release.

The foreign ministry said in a statement that she was “deceived and did not realise at all that she was being manipulated by North Korean intelligence”.

It said Ms Aisyah, a migrant worker, believed that she was part of a reality TV show and never had any intention of killing Kim.

The ministry said Malaysia’s attorney general used his authority under Malaysia’s criminal procedure code to not continue the prosecution following a request from Indonesia’s law and human rights minister.

It said that over the past two years, Ms Aisyah’s plight was raised in “every bilateral Indonesia-Malaysia meeting,” including at the president’s level, the vice president’s level and in regular meetings of the foreign minister and other ministers with their Malaysian counterparts.

Lawyers for the women have previously said 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 politicised.

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 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s rule.

Siti Aisyah, who had worked as a masseuse at a hotel in the Malaysian capital, and Doan, who described herself as an actress, had maintained that they believed they had been hired to participate in a reality TV prank show.

I feel so happy. I did not expect that today I would be released. Siti Aisyah, who was accused of killing the North Korean leader’s half brother