The final murder suspect on trial over the alleged poisoning of the North Korean leader’s estranged half brother using VX nerve agent has been sentenced to three years and four months in jail after pleading guilty to a lesser charge.
Doan Thi Huong, 30, from Vietnam, had been facing the possible death penalty if found guilty of the murder of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in February 2017.
On Monday in court in Malaysia she pleaded guilty to voluntarily causing hurt by a dangerous weapon, which carries a jail sentence of a maximum of 10 years.
Her defence argued that she was “naive and gullible” and had been manipulated to carry out the crime by four North Koreans who they claim are the real assassins and are still at large.
In a shock decision last month, her co-accused, Siti Aisyah, 27, from Indonesia, was released on 11 March after the attorney general agreed to drop the charges against her following petitioning from the Indonesian government.
Huong’s appeal for similar leniency was rejected three days later but her legal team and Vietnamese officials have continued to lobby on her behalf.
Mr Kim’s face was smeared with VX, a banned nerve agent developed as a chemical weapon on 13 February, 2017.
He died before he could reach hospital.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors have claimed both Siti Aiysah and Doan Thi Huong were trained assassins and knew they had to wash their hands within 15 minutes to avoid being hurt by the VX.
Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin likened the “assassination” to something seen “in a James Bond movie”.
Their defence lawyers argued the women did not know they were poisoning Mr Kim but believed they were playing pranks for a reality TV show, having previously been paid for playing similar tricks at shopping malls and airports.They claim they were unwitting pawns in a politically motivated murder.
CCTV from the airport shows a woman identified as Huong running up behind Mr Kim and rubbing something on his face before walking away.
Sentencing her on Monday. the judge said she was “a lucky person because from the original charge of murder which carries a mandatory sentence of death, the prosecution has offered you an alternative charge”.