Following a high profile crime, an Indonesian woman accused of using a deadly nerve agent to kill Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, returned home Monday after Malaysian prosecutors withdrew the charge against her.
An emotional Siti Aisyah, surrounded by government officials and reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jakarta, thanked her parents, President Joko Widodo and the Indonesian people for their prayers.
“I feel very happy,” she said later at a news conference at the Indonesian Embassy. “I didn’t expect that today will be my freedom day.”
The two young women were accused of smearing VX nerve agent on Kim Jong Nam’s face in an airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on 13 February 2017. They have said they thought they were taking part in a prank for a TV show.
They had been the only suspects in custody after four North Korean suspects fled the country the same morning Kim was killed.
The prosecutors did not ask the judge to drop charges against Huong, a decision her lawyer criticized as “unfair.”
The trial is due to resume Thursday, when prosecutors are expected to announce whether they will continue with the case against Huon