2nd suspect to walk free in Kim Jong-Nam murder case

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - A court in Malaysia is expected to release a second suspect accused of killing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's step-brother after she agreed to plead guilty to a “lesser charge”, her lawyer told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

The suspect, 30-year-old Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong, and another woman were arrested on charges of poisoning Kim Jong-Nam at Kuala Lumpur's airport on Feb. 13, 2017, with the toxic nerve agent VX, an internationally-prohibited chemical weapon.

The duo was caught by security cameras as they smeared the toxic agent on Kim's face.

Huong and the 27-year-old Indonesian national Siti Aisyah were in jail for the last two years.

Aisyah was released March 11 after prosecutors dropped charges against her.

Unlike Huong, forensic investigators found no trace of the toxic chemical in Aisyah's fingernails and she showed no poisoning symptoms.

Huong on Monday pleaded guilty to "purposely causing injury" to Kim by employing "dangerous means" in attacking him, according to the Singapore-based Channel News Asia.

Huong is expected to be released from prison next month following what her legal team said were usual sentence reductions from her prison term of three years and four months.

Both women have rejected murder charge as Aisyah has claimed that they were tricked by some people -- who she thinks were Korean or Japanese -- into the assassination and believed that it was a "prank" to be aired in a TV show.