SHAH ALAM, Malaysia (AP) — The Latest on the trial in Malaysia of two women accused of killing North Korean ruler’s half brother (all times local): 3 p.m. A Malaysian police officer has testified that an airport security video shows
SHAH ALAM, Malaysia (AP) — The Latest on the trial in Malaysia of two women accused of killing North Korean ruler’s half brother (all times local):
3 p.m.
A Malaysian police officer has testified that an airport security video shows one of the women accused of killing the half brother of North Korea’s leader apparently practicing on another person before the actual attack.
The two women are accused of smearing VX nerve agent on Kim Jong Nam’s face at a busy Malaysian airport terminal. Their lawyers have said they thought they were taking part in a harmless prank for a hidden camera TV show.
Police officer Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz told the court Tuesday that the earlier security video shows Vietnamese suspect Doan Thi Huong softly wiping something on the face of a person from behind in the same area of the airport as the attack. He said when the person turned around, Huong clasped her hands together and bowed slightly as if she was apologizing before retreating slowly.
However, he said another security video taken at the time of the murder showed Huong being very rough in her actions “as if she was attacking” Kim.
“To me, her action was quite aggressive,” Wan Azirul said, adding that Huong seemed to retreat in haste, walking very quickly.
Prosecutors said the earlier video was taken two days before the actual attack.
They are to show a video of the attack to the court on Wednesday.
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2 p.m.
A government chemist says the blazer worn by Kim Jong Nam and contaminated with VX nerve agent when he was attacked at a Malaysian airport was sent back to North Korea.
Chemist Raja Subramaniam said Tuesday the blazer was not available to be presented as evidence at the murder trial of the two women accused of killing Kim. He said police had told him to return Kim’s personal belongings, like his blazer, his bag and his chains, to Pyongyang.
Raja said VX was detected on the collar and sleeves of the blazer, possibly because Kim had wiped his face on the blazer after being attacked.
Kim was the eldest sibling in the current generation of North Korea’s ruling family but had lived abroad in virtual exile as an apparent family outcast.
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12:30 p.m.
A government chemist says the VX nerve agent that killed the estranged half brother of North Korea’s leader could not have been a combination of two non-fatal elements smeared on Kim Jong Nam’s face.
Chemist Raja Subramaniam said Tuesday at the murder trial of the two women accused of killing Kim that a high temperature would have been required to make a “binary” concoction of VX.
While being cross-examined by the suspects’ attorneys, the chemist agreed with the defense assertion that VX could have been smuggled into Malaysia or that a non-fatal compound could have been smuggled into the country and mixed clandestinely.
Their attorneys have said the women were duped by suspected North Korean agents.
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10:30 a.m.
A government chemist says the estranged half brother of North Korea’s leader had about 1.4 times the lethal dosage of VX nerve agent on his face after he was attacked at a Malaysian airport terminal.
Government chemist Raja Subramaniam testified Tuesday at the murder trial of two women accused of smearing the chemical weapon on Kim Jong Nam’s face on Feb. 13.
The chemist said pure VX was in Kim’s eye and blood and on the collar and sleeves of Kim’s blazer.
Raja said he couldn’t directly say if the VX concentration was enough to kill Kim, but the amount “is about 1.4 times the lethal dosage.”
He said the amount in Kim’s eye was smaller, but that correlated to VX penetrating faster through the eye than through the skin.
