Death Penalty News

Kim Jong Un’s slain half-brother was reportedly an informant for the Central Intelligence Agency and met with U.S. officials a number of times.  The Wall Street Journal reports Kim Jong Nam, who mainly lived outside North Korea, traveled to Malaysia in February 2017 to meet with his CIA contact—reportedly a “Korean-American” man who Malaysian officials suspected to be a U.S. officer.  It was in Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport that Kim Jong Nam was killed after two women smeared his face with a nerve agent.  The U.S. and South Korea blamed his murder on North Korea, which denied having anything to do with it.  Sources also told the Journal that Kim Jong Nam was likely a source of intelligence for China’s security services, among others.  The CIA reportedly declined to comment, and Chinese officials did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment. VX nerve agent A Vietnamese woman tried in the case of Kim’s death...

Kuala Lumpur - A Vietnamese woman who spent more than two years in a Malaysian prison on suspicion of killing the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was freed on Friday, her lawyer said. Doan Thi Huong, 30, was charged along with an Indonesian woman with poisoning Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with liquid VX, a banned chemical weapon, at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017. Malaysian prosecutors dropped a murder charge against Huong last month after she pleaded guilty to an alternate charge of causing harm. Huong will return to Vietnam later on Friday, her lawyer, Hisyam Teh, told Reuters. Huong was taken into immigration custody immediately after her release from a women's prison, and was believed to have been taken to immigration headquarters in the administrative capital, Putrajaya, where she will remain before boarding a flight to Hanoi. Teh said his client may speak at a brief news conference before boarding her flight on Friday evening. ...

A Vietnamese woman accused of killing Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korea's leader, has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of causing hurt by potentially deadly means. A Malaysian court sentenced Doan Thi Huong to three years and four months in jail, starting from her arrest in February 2017. However, under Malaysian law she could be freed by May, her lawyer said. Ms Huong would have faced the death penalty if found guilty of the murder. Mr Kim, the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong-un, was assassinated at Kuala Lumpur Airport in 2017 in broad daylight, with the toxic nerve agent VX. The development effectively means no-one has been held accountable for Mr Kim's death. What happens now? "In the first week of May, she will go home," Ms Huong's lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik told reporters at the Shah Alam court, outside Malaysia's capital. Her step-mother Nguyen Thi Vy told BBC Vietnamese the family was "very happy...

A Vietnamese woman suspected of assassinating the North Korean leader's half-brother lost her bid for immediate release Thursday as Malaysian authorities refused to drop a murder charge, days after her Indonesian co-accused was freed . Doan Thi Huong broke down in tears as a prosecutor announced the attorney-general had rejected a request to free her and her trial would continue. She has been on trial for a year and a half over the 2017 assassination of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur airport. On Monday a murder charge was unexpectedly withdrawn against the Indonesian woman accused alongside her, sparking calls from Vietnam for Huong to be freed and prompting her lawyers to apply for her release . The Vietnamese defendant, who had to be helped out of court by two police officers following the shock announcement, tearfully told reporters: "I am depressed. I am innocent... I want my family to pray for me." Huong's lawyer said he would make a second bid t...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Vietnam called on Malaysia on Tuesday to free a Vietnamese woman accused in the 2017 murder of the North Korean leader's half brother, a day after a Malaysian court dropped a similar charge against an Indonesian woman. Vietnam's Foreign Minister Pham Binh Binh, in a telephone call to his Malaysian counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah, asked Malaysia to "ensure a fair trial and free Vietnamese citizen Doan Thi Huong," the government said in a statement. Huong's co-defendant, Indonesian Siti Aisyah, was freed on Monday after a Malaysian court dropped the charge against her. She and Huong have been accused of poisoning Kim Jong Nam, half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with liquid VX at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017. Conviction could carry the death penalty. Minh said in the phone conversation that senior leaders and the people of Vietnam have paid close attention to the trial, the government statement said. ...

The Indonesian woman accused of killing Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korea's leader, has been freed after charges against her were dropped. Siti Aisyah had been accused of smearing VX nerve agent on Mr Kim's face in Kuala Lumpur airport in 2017. She and her co-accused, Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, deny murder and say they thought they were part of a TV prank. The brazen killing at an international airport left observers stunned and gripped international headlines. After several months of delay, the defence phase of the trial was set to begin Monday, with testimony from Ms Huong. However, the prosecutor in the case requested the murder charge for Siti Aisyah be dropped, without giving a reason. RELATED | Who are the two women of the Kim Jong-nam murder? In a letter to the Indonesian law minister though, Malaysia's attorney general explained the decision was taking into account considerations Jakarta raised about the case as well as th...

SHAH ALAM, Selangor: The trial of two women accused of murdering the North Korean leader's half-brother was adjourned Monday (Jan 28) until March, and the case will now drag on until at least mid-2019. Siti Aisyah from Indonesia and Doan Thi Huong from Vietnam have been on trial since October 2017, accused of murdering Kim Jong Nam by smearing the nerve agent VX on his face at Kuala Lumpur airport. The brazen assassination in February 2017 shocked the world, but the women have denied murder, saying they believed they were taking part in a prank and were tricked by North Korean agents. Proceedings in the trial of the women, both in their 20s, have moved slowly due to the large number of witnesses and infrequent hearings. There have been no hearings since August, when the prosecution finished presenting its case. The latest hold-up has been caused by an appeal from the defence, which is urging prosecutors to make key witness statements available. The prosecution ar...

Two women who say they were tricked into killing the half-brother of North Korea's Kim Jong-un will go on trial. Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Thuong are accused of smearing the toxic nerve agent VX on Kim Jong-nam's face in Kuala Lumpur airport last year. But they deny murder, saying they were told they taking part in a TV prank. A judge said there was enough evidence to suggest they knew what they were doing. They could face the death penalty if convicted. Four North Korean men also charged over the murder are still at large. What happened in the airport? Mr Kim, the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong-un, had been waiting to board a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Macau on 13 February last year when two women approached him in the departure area. CCTV footage shows one woman placing her hands over his face before she and the other woman leave the scene. Mr Kim is then seen seeking medical help - he told staff a chemical had been sprayed on him. H...

Four men suspected of plotting with two women to murder the North Korean leader's half-brother were Monday named by police as North Koreans who fled Malaysia after the assassination. They were identified at the trial of Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, the women accused of killing Kim Jong-Nam on February 13 with nerve agent VX at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in a hit that stunned the world. The pair, who were arrested days after the assassination and face death by hanging if convicted, pleaded not guilty to murdering the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong-Un when the trial began on October 2. They say they were tricked into believing they were taking part in a prank for a reality TV show and their lawyers have blamed North Korean agents. The charge sheet says four other individuals still at large are suspected of murdering Kim along with the women, but does not identify them. On Monday Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz, the main invest...

On Wednesday, pathologist Mohd Shah Mahmood testified before Malaysia's high court in the trial of Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong, who stand accused of killing Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.   Mohd Shah, an employee of the Malaysian government, testified that VX nerve agent, by international treaty a weapon of mass destruction, caused Kim's death, and Judge Azmi Ariffin officially admitted tissue and fluid samples as evidence. Both Aisyah and Huong are subject to death penalty if convicted of killing Kim. The samples were sealed in plastic when presented at court, but the judge and lawyers for both the prosecution and defense nonetheless wore protective gloves and masks to examine them. Both the North Korean government and Aisyah's lawyer have said the victim may have died of a heart attack or some cause other than VX nerve agent. Mohd Shah based his conclusion on VX nerve agent in Kim's system and on the timi...