Oriental Network Longitudinal News Reporter Feng Yinlun
At around 7:20 a.m. today (May 3), Vietnamese citizen Duan Thi-hsiung, a second woman accused of killing North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un's half-brother Kim Jong-nam, was released from a women's prison in Malaysia, according to Yonhap News Agency.
Duan's defense lawyer, Shang Mugen, made the announcement this morning. He said that after the relevant procedures at the local embassy in Vietnam, Duan Shixiang is expected to arrive in Vietnam by plane tonight.
After three years of twists and turns, one of the world's most dramatic murder mysteries has come to an abrupt end.
<h1>One</h1>
On February 14, 2017, Western Valentine's Day, the eyes of the global media were locked on the "Murder of Kim Jong-nam".
According to reports, on February 13, local time, a 46-year-old North Korean man was blindfolded by two strange women at kuala Lumpur Second International Airport with a cloth block stained with unknown liquid, and died on the way to the hospital.
According to foreign media, this piece of cloth is stained with an upgraded version of the chemical weapon that is clearly prohibited to be used- VX nerve agent, that is, VX2 type poison. It can be broken down into two harmless compounds alone, but once the two are mixed, they are immediately fatal.
On the same day, Malaysian officials confirmed that the deceased with the passport name "KIM CHOL" was the eldest son of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and the half-brother of the current North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un: Kim Jong-nam.
The alleged murder of Kim Jong-nam included two women whose identities were quickly confirmed: Duan Shih-hsiang, a Vietnamese citizen, and Siti Aisyah, an Indonesian citizen.
On February 25, Duan was arrested by Malaysian police, Sitie Aisha was subsequently arrested, and several north Korean male suspects were at large.
On 1 March 2017, 16 days after the incident, the Attorney-General's Office of Malaysia brought two female suspects to court in Sepang on charges of murder.
The Vietnamese suspect, Duan Thi Hoang (yellow), left the Sepang court in Malaysia under the escort of a SPECIAL police officer
On 16 August 2018, the High Court of Malaysia held a hearing, which found the two men on trumped-up charges and continued to be detained. Under Malaysian law, if the facts of the crime are finally established, the two will face hanging.
<h1>Two</h1>
Before falling into this assassination vortex, the 31-year-old Duan Shixiang was just a small Internet celebrity with a dream of stardom.
Born in 1988 in rural Dinh Duc province in northern Vietnam, Duan is the youngest of five siblings. According to the authorities of Vietnam's Nam Dinh Province, Duan Shixiang did not have any criminal history before his arrest.
According to reports, the economic development of Nanding Province is relatively backward, after graduating from high school at the age of 18, Duan Shixiang left his hometown to go to Hanoi alone to go to school.
After more than 10 years of leaving home, her mother died suddenly and her father remarried, she became increasingly estranged from her family, returning only occasionally to her hometown, and the family knew nothing about her situation in Hanoi.
"She's always been fashionable, and her hair is dyed colorful. Every Lunar New Year, she brings home different (expatriate) men. A neighbor once told the media.
According to media reports, Duan Shixiang studied at a pharmacy college in Hanoi and qualified as a pharmaceutical salesman, but she is obviously more interested in car models and drafts.
A video shows that in 2016, Duan Shih-hsiang once participated in the "Vietnam Idol" program and showed his singing skills, but after only 8 seconds of performance, he was stopped by the judges.
Pregnant with the dream of stardom, she did not give up, turned to the Internet, and became a "small Internet celebrity".
Just a few days before Kim Jong-nam was killed, Duan Shixiang also uploaded 4 photos on social networks, most of which showed her greased and powdered, her clothes were exposed, and she posed as cute.
According to local media reports, Duan Shixiang likes Korean culture very much, and the social network account address is also set to "Korean", and most of the followers are also Koreans.
Sun, a member of the popular group BIGBANG, is her fantasy boyfriend, and she has traveled to Jeju Island with Korean men.
On February 14, 2017, the day after Kim Jong-nam was killed, Duan's niece Ding Shijuan received a call from her aunt asking her to help buy a mobile phone prepaid card. "My aunt is a very kind and easy person to trust others, and I believe that she was deceived to do this." 」 Ding Shijuan told the media.
<h1>Three</h1>
"They are just 'innocent scapegoats'!" Duan's defense lawyer, Shang Mugen, said emphatically in court.
During these two years, the two female suspects pleaded not guilty to the charges of premeditated murder and repeatedly stressed that they were participating in only a live spoof of the whole person, believing that the "substance like baby oil" was a harmless liquid, so they smeared it on Kim Jong-nam's eyes and face.
Another suspect, Sitie Aisha, told police that while she was working at a nightclub one day, a strange man gave her $100 and asked her to sneak up on Kim Jong-nam in a "designated way." "I really need that money."
She admits that after several rehearsals before the incident to make sure nothing was wrong, "but I really don't know them (Kim Jong-nam and Duan Shi-heung)." ”
However, Malaysian prosecutors have always had reservations about this. The prosecution believes that judging from the fact that the two suspects deliberately went to the bathroom to wash away the poison after winning the hand, the attack was premeditated, and the claim of "making a spoof video" is not valid.
On February 18, 2019, the news spread that the second "Kim Summit" will be held in Hanoi, Vietnam. Duan's father, Doan Van Thanh, seemed to see hope. In a telephone interview with Japan's Asahi Shimbun, he said he hoped Kim Jong-un would help his daughter facing charges during a state visit to Vietnam.
Just a month later, on the first day of their trial (March 11), Malaysian prosecutors abruptly informed the judge to withdraw the charges against Sitie Aisha, who immediately announced his release. After her release, Sitie Aisha quickly left the courthouse.
Foreign media said that the prosecutor did not give a reason for the revocation, and directly skipped the procedures and procedures that should be followed, and said that she could leave Malaysia. Kilana, Indonesia's ambassador to Malaysia, who appeared in court that day, told the media that she would arrange for Sitie Aisha to return home as soon as possible.
"I'm very happy," Sitie Aisha said at a news conference after her release. When asked what the first thing she wanted to do was, she said: "I want to see my family. ”
On March 11, at a press conference at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Siti Aisha spoke after her release.
It is understood that the diplomatic efforts of the Indonesian government have had a considerable impact on this decision.
The result puts the other party involved in the case, the Vietnamese government, in a dilemma. In the face of domestic dissatisfaction and accusations of "inaction", the Vietnamese government strongly opposed the "differential treatment" of the Malaysian side and demanded the release of Duan Shixiang.
Under pressure, the Malaysian government changed its original position. On April 1, Ma changed Duan's murder charges to "injure others by dangerous weapons and other means" and sentenced him to 3 years and 4 months in prison.
Today, Duan Shixiang was suddenly released again. In the speculation of the outside world, the Malaysian side gave a reason - she had been detained and tried for two years before she was sentenced, and her attitude was sincere, and she was rated as a "model prisoner" and was therefore commuted.
Officials at the Vietnamese embassy said Duan's incense "looked very happy" after his release from prison.
<h1>Four</h1>
In the elaborate murder, four North Korean men suspected of instigating two female suspects — Lee Jae-nam, Lee Ji-hyun, Hong Song-ho and Oh Jong-gi — remain in the fog.
According to reports, after the 2017 incident, the four suspects stayed in the departure waiting room of the Malaysian airport for about 3 hours. After changing clothes and disguise, they first left the country by plane to Surabaya, Indonesia, and then traveled through Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Vladivostok in Russia, traveling to three countries for 4 days and 3 nights, and finally arrived in Pyongyang.
Interpol's website issued a "Red Notice" for them and updated the photos and personal information of the 4 people.
The information showed that they were between the ages of 32 and 56, all from North Korea, and had status of "wanted for murder by the Malaysian judiciary."
It is understood that the Red Notice is the highest level of emergency rapid arrest warrant issued by Interpol when it asks other countries to assist in the investigation of crimes, and is named after the Red Interpol emblem in the upper left corner of the notification.
However, the whereabouts of the four remain unknown.
After the "Murder of Kim Jong-nam", the authorities of the United States, South Korea and Malaysia repeatedly said that North Korea needed to be responsible, but the North Korean side always denied participating in it.
North Korea's ambassador to Malaysia, Kang Chul, once held a press conference to say that his own national with the passport name "Kim Chol" died unexpectedly due to heart paralysis, and that the man was not Kim Jong-nam. Li Zainan and 4 others also appeared at the same airport by chance.
He accused that "the manipulators behind the scenes are desperate to blame North Korea for Kim Chul's death."
According to public information, Kim Jong-boy was the eldest son of the late North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-il in 1971, and his mother was the late Famous North Korean movie star and kim Jong-il's second wife, Sung Hye-rin.
He studied in Moscow and Geneva, was awarded the rank of General of the People's Army in 1995, and served as head of the Overseas Department of the Ministry of National Defense of the DPRK, instructor of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, head of the Ministry of Public Security of the DPRK, and chairman of the DPRK Computer Committee.
In 2001, Kim Jong-nam, along with his son and two women, was deported while under immigration screening at Narita Airport in Japan and were found using fake Dominican passports. Since then, Kim Jong-nam has gradually moved away from the core of power and lived in Macao, Malaysia and other places.
The world-famous murder of the century has not been solved, but with the release of the last suspect today, all the people involved in kim Jong-nam's assassination have become free.
The death of Kim Jong-nam may always be a mystery after today.