Kim Jong-nam murder trial: Vietnamese suspect Doan Thi Huong accepts reduced charge, will be freed in May
- She has been on trial since 2017 for the murder of Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur airport with a toxic nerve agent in a cold war-style hit
- The attorney general agreed last month to withdraw the charge against her Indonesian co-defendant, Siti Aisyah
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“In the first week of May, she will go home,” lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik told reporters in the Shah Alam High Court, near Kuala Lumpur.
Doan Thi Huong, originally charged with murder, had pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of causing injury, and the judge sentenced her to three years and four months in jail from her arrest in February, 2017.
Kim Jong-nam murder trial: Vietnam asks Malaysia to free assassination suspect Doan Thi Huong
It came after authorities last month rejected her initial request for her murder charge to be dropped entirely – a shock decision after the attorney general agreed to withdraw the charge against her Indonesian co-defendant, Siti Aisyah, and she walked free.
Salim Bashir, one of her lawyers, said that the 30-year-old had been offered a charge of causing hurt by dangerous weapons instead of murder.
Soon afterwards, the new charge was read in court to Huong and she pleaded guilty.
Huong told reporters: “I’m happy, this is a fair sentence. This is a fair judgement, I thank the Malaysian government and the Vietnamese government.”
Huong’s stepmother said on Monday she was delighted her stepdaughter had escaped the death sentence, urging her to “hang on” until her expected release.
“The family is happy enough with her escaping death penalty,” she added after lighting incense to thank ancestors for sparing her stepdaughter from death.
Huong underwent a psychiatric assessment last month after her initial bid to be released was rejected.
Shadowy group plotting Kim Jong-un’s overthrow raided a North Korean embassy
Both the accused women had always denied murder, saying they were tricked by North Korean spies into carrying out the assassination that shocked the world using a highly toxic nerve agent, and believed it was a prank for a reality TV show.
Their lawyers presented them as scapegoats and said the real masterminds were four North Koreans accused alongside them, but who fled Malaysia shortly after the assassination.
If released, it will mean that no one is facing murder charges for the killing in February, 2017 of Kim Jong-un’s estranged relative, who was once considered heir apparent to the North Korean leadership until he fell out of favour.
South Korea accuses the North of ordering the hit, a claim vehemently denied by Pyongyang.
There were dramatic scenes in court when Huong’s initial bid for immediate release was rejected – she sobbed in the dock and had to be helped out of court by two police officers.
Vietnam reacted angrily to the decision, which came just days after the Indonesian defendant was released, and started stepping up pressure on Malaysia to free Huong.
A murder conviction carries a mandatory penalty of death by hanging in Malaysia. The government vowed last year to scrap capital punishment but recently indicated that it might backtrack.
