malaysiakini logo
story-image
mk-logo
News
Suspect in Jong-nam's assassination arrested
Published:  Feb 15, 2017 1:17 PM
Updated: 1:37 PM
ADS

One of the two women who allegedly assassinated Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has been arrested by police today.

A 29-year-old female suspect, who possessed a Vietnamese travel document, was nabbed at KLIA2 at 8.20am today, inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar said.

"The suspect was positively identified from the CCTV footage at the airport at the time of arrest," he said in a statement.

Earlier English daily theSun said the suspect was staying at a hotel in Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi since the death of Jong-nam and police are investigating why she had turned up at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) this morning.

Apart from the woman in custody, police are looking for five others, including another woman, to assist investigations. 

Police also earlier arrested the taxi driver who ferried the two women.

Deputy inspector-general of police Noor Rashid Ibrahim, however, told theSun that the cabbie appeared not to be involved in the alleged plot.

Citing a senior police source, Oriental Daily said surveillance footage showed that the two women had proceeded to the taxi departure area of KLIA2 after the incident.

The pair then boarded a taxi, which was captured on CCTV.

"After reviewing the airport's CCTV footage, police arrested the taxi driver," said the source.

The report said following the arrest, police learned that the women had told the taxi driver that they were Vietnamese.

The report also quoted the police source explaining how both women had allegedly poisoned Kim.

"At that time, Kim was at the airport lobby and was preparing to enter the departure hall when two women suddenly approached him.

"One sprayed the poison on him and another then used a handkerchief to cover his face for around 10 seconds," he added.

The source declined to reveal the exact poison used but described it as "more potent than cyanide".

Meanwhile, photographs of KLIA2's CCTV footage of one of the alleged assassins was leaked and has been aired by 24-hour South Korean news broadcaster YTN News.

Similar photographs were also published by English daily The Malay Mail today.

The pictures showed a fair skinned woman with shoulder-length hair clad in a long-sleeved T-shirt and skirt.

Meanwhile, Oriental Daily quoted Selangor police chief Abdul Samah Mat saying the case has been classified as murder, upon completion of a post-mortem of the body at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital. 

View Comments