KUALA LUMPUR – Handcuffed, wearing bulletproof vests and under heavily armed guard, the two women accused of murdering the half-brother of North Korea’s leader were pushed around a Malaysian airport in wheelchairs on Tuesday during a court visit to the crime scene.
Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Doan Thi Huong, 28, a Vietnamese, are charged with murdering Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with VX, a chemical nerve agent, at Kuala Lumpur’s budget international terminal on Feb. 13.
The two women were brought back to the scene as part of an entourage of court officials, led by trial judge Azmi Ariffin and accompanied by over 100 police officers and dozens of journalists, on a visit to retrace the events that unfolded before, during and after Kim Jong Nam’s death.
Defense lawyers requested the visit after video recordings of the women on airport closed-circuit television were screened in court.
The site visit covered various locations in the terminal shown in the videos, such as a restaurant where Siti Aisyah was seen meeting an unidentified man, the toilets where police witnesses said both women had gone to after the attack on Kim Jong Nam, the clinic where the victim sought medical aid and the taxi stands where both suspects were seen after the attack.
Huong appeared unwell midway through the site visit while Siti Aisyah broke down in tears. Both women were then provided wheelchairs.
Recordings on Feb. 13 show Huong approaching Kim and grasping his face from behind near the airport’s check-in counters before quickly leaving. Siti Aisyah could not be seen during the attack but was identified by a police witness as a figure running in another direction.
The videos also show the women heading to separate bathrooms to wash their hands.
Both women were seen meeting with two men, identified only as Mr. Chang and Mr. Y, before the attack. According to police, the men had applied liquid on the women’s hands, and were among four suspects-at-large charged together with the women for the murder.
The airport visit comes as the high-profile trial entered its third week. Twelve witnesses have testified so far.
Forensic and chemical weapons experts said Kim Jong Nam died of nerve agent poisoning, and that VX had been found on Siti Aisyah and Huong’s clothes. Traces of the poison were also found under Huong’s fingernails.
Prosecutors say Siti Aisyah and Huong conspired with four others who are still at large to kill Kim Jong Nam.
Defense lawyers have argued the women did not know that they were handling poison and that they thought they had been involved in a prank for a reality TV show.
South Korean and U.S. officials have said that Kim Jong Un’s regime was behind his half-brother’s death.
Kim Jong Nam, who was living in exile in Macau, had criticized his family’s dynastic rule of North Korea and his brother had ordered his execution, according to some South Korean lawmakers.
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