‘DOAN DID PRACTICE RUN ON FEB 11’
Accused smeared ‘something’ on someone two days before Kim’s murder, court told
VIETNAMESE Doan Thi Huong, accused of murdering North Korean Kim Chol, was recorded smearing “something” on the face of an unsuspecting member of the public two days before the Feb 13 incident, the High Court heard.
Police officer Assistant Superintendent Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz testified yesterday that the action was captured by Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) on Feb 11.
Wan Azirul, an investigating officer from Sepang police headquarters, said one of the recordings from 23 DVDs of CCTV footages showed Doan, 28, approaching a person from behind before putting her hands onto the person’s face at the airport’s departure hall on Level 3.
However, he said, although the move was similar to what she did on Feb 13, Doan was “more relaxed” and “apologised before slowly walking away”.
“The accused was seen (on the video) approaching a member of the public from behind whom she chose randomly before smearing something on the person’s face.
“When the person turned towards her, she made a gesture like apologising by lowering her head and putting her hands together in front, before walking several steps behind and turning away slowly,” said Wan Azirul during examination-in-chief by deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin.
Wan Azirul said police obtained 23 DVDs of CCTV recordings from the airport, 22 of which were from the day Kim Chol was killed while only one was on Feb 11.
Wan Azirul described Doan’s action as a rehearsal to the murder, but this was immediately objected to by Doan’s lawyer Hisham Teh Poh Teik.
Asked to elaborate on what he saw from the Feb 13 footages, Wan Azirul said he observed that Doan was “more aggressive towards the deceased compared with the member of the public in the Feb 11 video.”
“The action on the deceased was rough, as if the accused was attacking him. Another difference that I observed was the accused walking fast.”
Wan Azirul was introduced as the ninth prosecution witness and the examination-in-chief will resume today.
Earlier, eighth prosecution witness Dr S. Raja, who is the head chemist of the Chemistry Department’s Chemical Weapon Analysis Centre, told the court that the dosage of VX nerve agent found on Kim Chol’s skin was above the lethal level.
He said analysis revealed that VX on the victim was 0.2mg per kg body weight, about 1.4 times the dose known to kill humans.
Raja said VX lethal dose was 0.142mg, based on a previous known VX incident in Osaka, Japan, in 1994.
He testified that the Feb 13 incident was the second in the world after Osaka.
Raja also agreed to a suggestion by defence counsel Gooi Soon Seng that the binary method (combining two elements to make a lethal VX dose) was not possible in this case.
He said a blazer belonging to Kim Chol was handed to Assistant Superintendent Mohd Zaini Che Din on March 30, and was informed that samples including, a bag, shoes, jeans, a ring and a watch belonging to the victim, were returned to North Korea.
On March 1, Doan and another accused, Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, were separately charged with murdering Kim Chol, 45, with four others still at large.
The duo allegedly committed the offence at the klia2 departure hall about 9am on Feb 13.