MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th August, 2018) A Malaysian court ruled on Thursday that it had enough evidence against the two women charged with killing Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and ordered the pair to enter their defense, local media reported.
According to The Star newspaper, Judge Azmi Ariffin decided that the prosecution had provided prima facie evidence to support murder charges against Indonesian national Siti Aisyah, 26, and Vietnamese citizen Doan Thi Huong, 29.
"Thus, I now order both to enter their defence," he said after reading ruling for more than two hours, as quoted by the newspaper.
The defense phase of the trial may reportedly take months.
On February 13, 2017, Kim, traveling by the name of Kim Chol, was killed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, before boarding a flight to Macau, where he resided with his family in exile. Malaysian investigators suspect that he was killed with the VX nerve agent. The substance is listed as a chemical weapon in the Chemical Weapons Convention and classified by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction.
The two women, along with with four North Koreans, who are at large, are charged with "common intention" to kill Kim. The women pleaded not guilty, insisting that they believed they were taking part in a prank for a reality tv show when they attacked Kim. Prosecution insists that the pair were well-trained assassins.
