Two women to be charged with Kim murder

Two women will be charged with the murder of Kim Jong-Nam, who was assassinated with a lethal nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur’s main airport, Malaysia’s attorney general said Tuesday.

“They will be charged in court under Section 302 (murder) of the penal code,” said Mohamed Apandi Ali, two weeks after the half-brother of North Korea’s leader was killed.

The suspects, an Indonesian and a Vietnamese, will appear in court on Wednesday. If found guilty they face death by hanging.

In leaked CCTV footage, two women are seen shoving something into Kim’s face at the airport’s Terminal 2. The 45-year-old  suffered a seizure and died before he reached hospital.

Both women have insisted they thought they were taking part in the making of a prank video.

Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, reportedly told a senior diplomat Saturday she had been paid just 400 ringgit ($90) for her role, adding she believed she was handling a liquid like “baby oil”.

Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, 28, told Hanoi officials she had been tricked into killing Kim and thought she was taking part in a prank for a comedy video.

A third suspect, 46-year-old North Korean man Ri Jong-Chol, was also arrested following the brazen February 13 killing.

Apandi did not mention if he would be charged.

© Agence France-Presse