Kim murder case: Vietnam accused to be freed in May

Kuala Lumpur

A Vietnamese woman Doan Thi Huong, accused of killing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's half brother Kim Jong-nam, will be released on May 3, her lawyer said on Saturday.

Malaysian prosecutors had earlier this month offered to ease the murder charge against Doan, following the release of her co-accused Indonesian national Siti Aisyah, in March.

Doan was sentenced to three years and four months in jail on April 1, after pleading guilty to an alternative charge offered by prosecutors from the previous murder charge, which carried mandatory capital punishment if convicted, Xinhua news agency reported.

Doan's lead counsel Hisyam Teh Poh Teik said at that time she would be released by the first week of May, with the two years already served, counting from her arrest on February 15, 2017, and the remaining one-third granted remission.

Lawyer Salim Bashir of Doan's defence team said he was informed through the Embassy of Vietnam in Malaysia that she would be released on May 3. She will be sent home to Vietnam on the same day, he told state news agency Bernama.

In March, Malaysian prosecutors withdrew the murder charge against Siti Aisyah, the Indonesian woman who was charged together with Doan in the case. Aisyah was then released.

Both women were accused of murdering Kim Jong-nam by smearing VX nerve agent on his face at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in February 2017. They both denied the charges.

Kim Jong-nam died on the way to hospital, less than half an hour after receiving the poison -- a colourless and odourless oily liquid classified by the UN as a "weapon of mass destruction".