A few hours ago, Houng was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for killing the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half-brother but may be released in May for good behaviour according to her lawyer.
The sentencing came earlier today in Malaysia after 30-year-old Doan Thi Huong pleaded guilty to a reduced charge.
The Vietnamese woman, Huong, was given two-thirds of her supposed sentence by the judge after pleading guilty to the murder charge. One-third of the sentence was cut by the judge which according to him aimed at “striking a balance between the interests of the public and the interests of the accused”.
While being handcuffed and taken away, Huong thanked her cheering supporters as well as the Malaysian and Vietnamese governments, as she appeared rather unperturbed. She told the reporters, “I’m very happy, and it is a fair sentence for me.”
Huong’s lawyers expect her to be released from prison in the first week of May.
Siti Aisyah, who’s now in Indonesia and Huong’s co-accused also had the charge withdrawn against her two weeks after Huong’s lawyers’ call for the murder charge to be withdrawn was rejected. The pair was accused of poisoning the North Korean leader’s brother with liquid VX at Kuala Lumpur airport early 2017.
Lead defence lawyer, Hisyam Teoh Poh Teik told the judge before the sentencing that “The people behind Kim Jong Nam’s murder exploited and manipulated Doan Thi Huong to carry out their evil designs.”
The murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong Nam caused a nationwide manhunt and a diplomatic crisis.
Four North Korean men who are prime suspects in the murder of Kim Jong Nam fled Malaysia the very day he was killed, leaving Huong and Siti Aisyah in custody in relation to the crime.