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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – A Malaysian court is scheduled to set a new date on Wednesday for the start of the trial defense phase of two Southeast Asian women accused of murdering the North Korean leader's half-brother.
In August, a High Court judge ruled that there was sufficient evidence to infer that Indonesians Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, along with four missing North Korean suspects, had surrendered to a "well planned plot" to kill Kim Jong Nam.
The police escorted the women Wednesday in the courthouse for the hearing to determine when the defense phase would begin. It was scheduled to resume on November 1, but was postponed after a defense attorney fell ill.
The two men are accused of tarnishing the nerve agent VX on Kim's face in an airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on February 13, 2017. They claimed to have taken part in a joke for a television show. They are the only suspects in detention. The four North Korean suspects fled the country the very morning of Kim's assassination.
The lawyers for Aisyah, 25, and Huong, 29, told the judge that they would testify under oath to defend themselves.
They stated that their clients were pawns during a political assassination with clear links to the North Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and that the prosecution did not demonstrate that the women had the intention to kill. Their intent is the key to concluding that they are guilty of murder.
Malaysian officials have never officially accused North Korea and have made it clear that they do not want the trial to be politicized.
Kim was the eldest son of the current generation of the North Korean ruling family. He has been living abroad for years, but it is believed that he could have been perceived as a threat to the government of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The murder is punishable by mandatory hanging, but the Malaysian government plans to abolish the death penalty and suspend all executions until the laws are amended.
