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No access yet to Siti; junior North Korean diplomat wanted
“We respect the legal process that is currently underway in Malaysia and we’ll continue to wait until they grant us consular access [to Siti Aisyah]. That will be our focus,” said Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, the Foreign Ministry’s director for the protection of Indonesian nationals and entities abroad.
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Residents walk in a narrow alley where the house of Siti Aisyah, the Indonesian woman suspected of being involved in the killing of the North Korean leader's half brother in Malaysia, is located in Tambora neighborhood in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Feb. 17, 2017. Family and former neighbors of Aisyah are stunned by the arrest of the young mother who they say was a polite and quiet (AP/Dita Alangkara)
W
hile officials have not strictly ruled out the possibility that an Indonesian may be involved in the murder of Kim Jong-nam, Indonesia has taken a step back to allow Malaysia to conclude its investigation.
“We respect the legal process that is currently underway in Malaysia and we’ll continue to wait until they grant us consular access [to Siti Aisyah]. That will be our focus,” said Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, the Foreign Ministry’s director for the protection of Indonesian nationals and entities abroad.
According to Malaysian law, the authorities reserve the right to deny consular access to a person involved in a legal case until the investigation has concluded.
Iqbal insisted, however, that it was too early to jump to any conclusions, noting the Malaysian investigators’ decision to extend Siti’s remand for another seven days due to a lack of evidence.
(Read also: Who is Siti Aisyah? Foreign agent or gullible migrant worker?)
“It is too soon to make any legal inferences from the case,” he said in a statement to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Separately, National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian told reporters that the police were also in contact with the Royal Malaysian Police.
Tito said he would leave it up to the Malaysian authorities to determine whether there was enough evidence to make a case against Siti and other persons of interest.
“We will look into it, but whether or not their testimonies are false will be completely up to [Malaysian authorities],” Tito told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting at the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
“If the [suspect] turns out to be innocent, then we cannot put our teeth into it. But if she is clearly proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt, then she ought to be processed in accordance with the prevailing legal system [in Malaysia].”
Malaysia’s handling of the outlandish murder of Kim Chol, which local authorities claim was the alias of the estranged half-brother of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un, has raised just as many questions in Jakarta as it has in Kuala Lumpur.
(Read also: TV footage appears to show deliberate attack on North Korean)
Two female suspects, Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huon, were detained last week based on CCTV footage of the incident. Another two men have been detained and Malaysian authorities were in pursuit of four North Korean nationals also believed to be involved.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported on Wednesday that Malaysian police had named a North Korean diplomat along with a state airline official as wanted for questioning over the murder of Kim Jong-nam.
South Korean and United States officials believed the killing of the elder half-brother of Kim Jong-un was an assassination carried out by agents of the North.
Kim Jong-nam had spoken out publicly against his family’s dynastic control of the isolated, nuclear-armed state.
Giving an update on an investigation that has already angered North Korea, Malaysia’s police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said the diplomat wanted for questioning was 44-year-old Hyon Kwang-song, a second secretary at the embassy.
Police also wanted to interview Kim Uk-il, 37, an employee of the North Korean state-owned airline Air Koryo.
Khalid said both were in Malaysia but could not confirm they were in the embassy.
“They’ve been called in for assistance. We hope the embassy will cooperate with us and allow us to interview them quickly or else we will compel them to come to us,” Khalid told reporters.
“We can’t confirm that they are hiding in the embassy,” he told Reuters.
So far, police have identified a total of eight North Koreans suspected of being linked to the murder.
One, Ri Jong-chol, has been in custody since last week, and another, Ri Ji-u, remains at large.
