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| Đoàn Thị Hương appears in the first court hearing on March 1. — AFP/VNA Photo |
Viet Nam News
KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s Shah Alam High Court announced on Friday that the trial of Vietnamese citizen Đoàn Thị Hương and Indonesian citizen Siti Aisyah, suspects in the murder of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) citizen Kim Chol, will start on October 2.
The trial will last for 23 days till the end of this November.
Judge Armi Ariffin who chaired the hearing said the next hearings will be from October 2-5, 9-10, 24-26, and November 6-9, 13-16, and 27-30, adding that the defendants could enter a plea at the October 2 hearing.
“We will start in October," said Judge Ariffin. "The hearing has been fixed for the second."
The cases will be tried together with pleas taken at the first hearing, he was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The court will summon 30 witnesses and 10 specialists to the hearings.
On Thursday, the two suspects wore bullet-proof coats and were taken to the court under heavy security.
Under the direction of Việt Nam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the embassy of Việt Nam in Malaysia will continue working with Vietnamese agencies and Malaysian lawyers defending Hương to ensure the trial is fair and objective and Hương’s rights are protected.
Kim Chol, as named in his passport, died at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on February 13. Malaysia said he was poisoned, but the DPRK insisted that he died of a heart attack, despite having had no access to his body at the time.
At the court hearing on March 1, the two women were charged with murder but they denied and said that they had been led to believe they were taking part in a prank.
They face the death penalty if convicted. — VNS
