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Indonesian caught up in murder case of North Korean prominent figure
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Hunted: A man believed to be Kim Jong Nam, eldest son of then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, is surrounded by the media upon arrival from Macau at Beijing airport in Beijing. Kim was assassinated at an airport in Kuala Lumpur, telling medical workers before he died that he had been attacked with a chemical spray a Malaysian official said Tuesday. (Kyodo News via AP, File) (AP/file)
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high-profile transnational murder case in Malaysia has taken a surprising twist after local authorities announced on Thursday the arrest of two suspects, including an Indonesian woman.
Malaysian authorities announced two more arrests on Thursday in connection with the death of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, whose assassination on Monday was said to be a contract killing in broad daylight by two female assailants.
Investigators are still piecing together the details of the case, including the widespread assumption that Kim Jong-un dispatched a hit squad to kill his half brother, just days after the isolated country successfully launched an allegedly nuclear-ready missile.
Kim Jong-nam had lived away from North Korea for years, and was recently residing in Macau.
Three suspects — two women and a man — were arrested separately on Wednesday and Thursday. The women were identified using surveillance video from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), where the victim Kim, who was 45 or 46, suddenly fell ill.
Malaysian officials said he died on the way to the hospital after telling airport medical workers that he had been sprayed with a chemical, Associated Press reported.
South Korean media reports, citing unidentified sources, said two women believed to be North Korean agents killed him with toxic spray before fleeing in a taxi.
One female suspect had Vietnamese travel documents and was picked up on Wednesday at the KLIA budget terminal.
The Royal Malaysian Police circulated press statements identifying the suspects, including 25-yearold Indonesian Siti Aisyah from Serang, Banten, and 26 year-old Muhammad Farid bin Jalaluddin, a Malaysian man that authorities identified as “the boyfriend of the second female suspect.”
Siti and Farid were arrested on Thursday and will remain in custody to assist with the investigation, according to the statements.
Several Indonesian officials confirmed the former’s nationality and that her documents were listed in the database of the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, but refused to say whether she had been detained for her involvement in the murder case.
“The ministry never confirmed [her] involvement in the alleged assassination, as it is the sole authority of Malaysian law enforcers after they conclude the investigation,” said Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, director for the protection of Indonesian nationals and entities abroad.
Iqbal added that a team from the Kuala Lumpur mission had arrived in Selangor state on Thursday evening to verify the woman’s identity.
The Indonesian government has not explicitly named Siti, choosing to identify her with the acronym SI, as the legal process has yet to conclude.
Meanwhile, medical workers have completed an autopsy on Kim Jong-nam, but the results have not been released. The findings could reveal whether he was indeed poisoned.
North Korea had objected to the autopsy but Malaysia went ahead with it because no formal protest was submitted, said Selangor Police chief Abdul Samah Mat.
Kim Jong-nam, the son of Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s previous leader who died in 2011, reportedly fell out of favor after he was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport in 2001, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
He complained that Kim Jongun, the country’s new leader, had failed to treat him with respect and send him enough money, according to Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst at South Korea’s Sejong Institute.
However, Kim Jong-nam refrained from openly criticizing the North and kept a low profile after Kim Jong-un ordered the execution of his uncle and former protector Jang Song-thaek, once considered the country’s secondmost powerful person, in 2013.
