Trial in Kim Jong Nam’s murder resumes in Malaysia

Kim, the eldest son in the family that has ruled North Korea since its founding, had been living abroad for years after falling out of favor. It is thought he could have been seen as a threat to his half brother Kim Jong Un's rule.

By: AP | Shah Alam | Updated: January 22, 2018 2:05 pm

Kim Jong Nam's murder resumes in Malaysia

Gooi has said Kim’s killing was a political assassination because of the involvement of the North Korean Embassy. (Reuters file photo)

Malaysia’s high-profile trial of two women accused of killing the estranged half brother of North Korea’s leader resumed on Monday after a seven-week recess, with witnesses taking the stand to verify the authenticity of security camera footages capturing the attack. Indonesia’s Siti Aisyah, 25, and Vietnam’s Doan Thi Huong, 29, are accused of smearing VX nerve agent on Kim Jong Nam’s face in a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur last February 13.

They pleaded not guilty to murder charges when their trial began October 2. The two are the only suspects in custody, though prosecutors have said four North Koreans who fled the country were also involved. Prosecutors, who last year showed the security videos to the court, called three technicians from the airport and the airport hotel to the stand Monday to explain how they extracted the relevant images from the main computer server and copied them to discs. This was to enable the court to accept the footages as formal evidence.