SHAH ALAM, Malaysia: The trial of two women accused of murdering the North Korean leader’s half-brother was Thursday shown CCTV footage of four men suspected of involvement in the assassination at the airport crime scene.
A police officer testified one of the men was believed to have been the “mastermind” in the killing of Kim Jong-Nam on February 13 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, in a hit that stunned the world.
Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong are on trial accused of carrying out the assassination by rubbing the nerve agent VX on his face.
The pair, who were arrested a few days after the assassination and face death by hanging if convicted, have pleaded not guilty to murdering the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong-Un.
They say they were tricked into believing they were taking part in a prank for a reality TV show, and South Korea has accused the North of ordering the hit. Pyongyang denies the allegations.
The charge sheet says four other individuals still at large are suspected of murdering Kim along with the women, but does not identify them. Four North Koreans fled Malaysia on the day of the murder.
Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz, the main police investigating officer, previously testified the four other suspects were men known to the women by pseudonyms — Mr.Y, Mr.Chang, Hanamori and James.
CCTV footage of the men at the airport around the time of the murder was shown in court Thursday.
“Hanamori played the role as the mastermind of this incident,” Wan Azirul told the Shah Alam High Court, outside Kuala Lumpur,
The officer testified that the video showed Hanamori arriving at Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s budget terminal just after 7:30 am and sitting at a table with James.
The other two men are then seen taking it in turns to separately sit down and talk to Hanamori.
The officer said Hanamori, Mr.Chang and Mr.Y changed their clothes after the attack and then headed to the airport’s main terminal, where they were filmed together in the departure hall.
James was filmed heading to an airport hotel at the main terminal following the attack. He checked out and was later also seen in the terminal’s departure hall.
Wan Azirul previously told the court that two of the men, Mr.Chang and Mr.Y, met Aisyah, 25, and Huong, 29, and put liquid on their hands shortly before Kim was attacked at 9:00 am.
Kim Jong-Nam trial sees airport video of male suspects
Kim Jong-Nam trial sees airport video of male suspects
Sri Lanka hospital releases 22 rescued Iranian sailors
- Sri Lankan authorities said the survivors from the Dena were being handled according to international humanitarian law
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka discharged from hospital 22 Iranian sailors who were plucked from life rafts after their warship was sunk by a US submarine, officials said Sunday.
The sailors were treated at Karapitiya Hospital in the southern port city of Galle since Wednesday after the IRIS Dena was torpedoed just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters.
“Another 10 are still undergoing treatment,” a medical officer at the hospital told AFP.
He said the bodies of 84 Iranians retrieved from the Indian Ocean were also at the hospital.
Those discharged from hospital overnight had been taken to a beach resort in the same district.
Sri Lankan authorities said the survivors from the Dena were being handled according to international humanitarian law, and the government had contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross for assistance.
The island is also providing safe haven for another 219 Iranian sailors from a second ship, the IRIS Bushehr, that was allowed to berth a day after the Dena was sunk.
Sailors from the Bushehr have been moved to a Sri Lanka Navy camp at Welisara, just north of the capital Colombo, and their ship taken over by Sri Lanka’s navy.
Sri Lanka announced it was taking the Bushehr to the north-eastern port of Trincomalee, but an engine failure and other technical and administrative issues had delayed the movement, a navy spokesman said.
Sri Lanka has denied claims that it was under pressure from Washington not to allow the Iranians to return home, and said Colombo will be guided solely by international law and its own domestic legislation.
A US State Department spokesperson said the disposition of the Bushehr crew and Iranian sailors rescued at sea was up to Sri Lanka.
“The United States, of course, respects and recognizes Sri Lanka’s sovereignty in the handling of this situation,” the spokesperson told AFP in Washington.
India, meanwhile, said Saturday that it had allowed a third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan, to dock in one of its ports on “humane” grounds after it too reported engine problems.
The three ships were part of a multi-national fleet review held by India before the war in the Middle East started last week.
“I think it was the humane thing to do, and I think we were guided by that principle,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Saturday.
The Lavan docked in the south-west Indian port of Kochi on Wednesday.
“A lot of the people on board were young cadets. They have disembarked and are in a nearby facility,” Jaishankar said.
