Doan Thi Huong, Vietnamese woman linked to Kim Jong-nam murder, walks free from Malaysian jail

Indonesian Siti Aisyah – the only other person accused of the 2017 killing using a banned nerve agent – had already been freed

The pair always denied having committed murder, arguing that they were pawns in a plan hatched by North Korean agents who fled Malaysia

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Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong has been released. Photo: AP

Published: 8:34am, 3 May 2019Updated: 10:08pm, 3 May 2019

A Vietnamese woman accused of assassinating the North Korean leader’s half-brother was freed from prison on Friday, ending legal proceedings stemming from the killing despite criticism that the real culprits never faced justice.

After a lengthy trial, Doan Thi Huong pleaded guilty last month to a lesser charge of “causing injury” over the 2017 assassination of Kim Jong-nam, making her the only person convicted for a murder that made headlines around the world.

Weeks earlier, Indonesian Siti Aisyah – the only other person to face trial over the killing carried out with a banned nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur airport – was released and flew home after her murder charge was withdrawn.

The pair always denied having committed murder, arguing that they were pawns in a plan hatched by North Korean agents who fled Malaysia after the killing. South Korea accused Pyongyang of plotting the assassination.

Huong, who received a jail term of several years, which was cut due to sentence remissions, was freed from a prison outside the Malaysian capital at about 7.20am, her lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik said.

Journalists waiting outside the jail saw a van and a car with tinted windows race past, and a court official at the scene also confirmed Huong had been released.

A prison security officer stands guard. Photo: AFP

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