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Malaysia bar chief questions why Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong was not freed
Linh Pham 10:22, 2019/03/18
Abdul Fareed said the attorney general should explain the inconsistency between the two suspects amid the rising international attention paid to the case.
Malaysia’s head of lawyers council has raised a question why Vietnamese citizen Doan Thi Huong was not freed in the murder case after the attorney general dropped charges against co-suspect Indonesian Siti Aisyah.
 
Datuk Abdul Fareed Abdul Gafoor, president of the Malaysian Bar Council. Photo: The Star
Datuk Abdul Fareed Abdul Gafoor, president of the Malaysian Bar Council. Photo: The Star
Datuk Abdul Fareed Abdul Gafoor, president of the Malaysian Bar Council, asked the attorney general to explain the release of the Indonesian suspect in the murder of allegedly North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half-brother, but not the second suspect.

Attorney-General (AG) Tommy Thomas should explain the inconsistency, especially since the case has attracted global attention, the newly-elected official said in a statement.

The Star quoted Abdul Fareed as saying that the discretion to charge or not to charge a person lies with the AG. That has been done on many occasions. However the acquittal of the Indonesian Siti Aisyah was done after the prosecution and defense were called. That was not usual.

On March 11, Siti Aisyah was freed at the court, leaving Doan Thi Huong the only defendant in the case in which both were charged with murder and accused of smearing VX nerve agent onto the victim – Kim Jong Nam in February 2017. 
 
Doan Thi Huong at the court on March 14. Photo: AP
Doan Thi Huong at the court on March 14. Photo: AP
Currently, Huong remains in custody, facing trial in the killing.

“There are a lot of questions on why one person is acquitted and the charges against her withdrawn while the other person remains charged,” Abdul Fareed said after the council’s annual general meeting on Saturday [March 16].

According to Bloomberg, Indonesian President Joko Widodo personally greeted Siti when she returned home after being acquitted of charges, a Twitter post by the president dated March 12 showed.

Abdul Fareed was elected to lead the bar council together with Secretary Salim Bashir Bhaskaran, who is acting as a lawyer for Huong.

One day after Siti was freed, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh asked Malaysia to free Doan Thi Huong in a phone conversation with Malaysian counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah. 

On March 13, Vietnamese Justice Minister Le Thanh Long sent a letter to Malaysia’s Attorney General Tommy Thomas asking Malaysia to free Huong.

Huong, a 30-year-old Christian, was reported to feel stressed following the release of Siti. She was taken to a psychiatric ward at the Hospital Kuala Lumpur for a health check-up, The Star reported.
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