Kajang (Malaysia): A Vietnamese woman accused of killing Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has been set free, bringing legal proceedings in the gripping murder mystery to an end.
Doan Thi Huong was released from a Malaysian prison on Friday morning (local time), her lawyer said. She is expected to return to her home country in the day, media reported.
Huong, along with an Indonesian woman Siti Aisyah, were charged with the murder of Kim Jong-nam in February 2017. While Siti was freed on March 11 after prosecutors unexpectedly withdrew the murder charge against her, Huong remained behind the bars, until today.
A month after Aisyah was freed, Huong pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of "causing hurt by a dangerous weapon." She was awarded a prison sentence of three years and four months but was given credit for time served plus customary sentence reductions.
The two women were accused of poisoning Kim Jong-nam by rubbing the deadly VX agent on his face at the Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017. He died within 20 minutes as a result of the chemical, which is classified as a weapon of mass destruction.
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Before the attack, the suspects were brought to a nearby cafe where a man allegedly wiped a liquid on the hands of one of them. Lawyers for the two women claimed that the pair was tricked by a team of North Korean agents into believing that they were taking part in a reality TV show.
