Kim Jong Nam | Women on trial back to scene of attack on North Korean scion

Siti Aisyah escorted by police at KLIA2 budget terminal in Sepang

The two women accused of killing the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un were taken back to the scene of the crime yesterday as their murder trial moved from the courtroom to the Malaysian airport for a three-hour inspection tour under heavy police guard.

The judge, prosecutors, defense lawyers and representatives of the women’s home countries were escorted inside the Kuala Lumpur airport by heavily armed police on a tour meant to give the court a better perspective of events as they unfolded.

Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam appeared subdued at the start of the tour, which took a break about an hour later when Aisyah became emotional. She was seen sobbing quietly. She and Huong were given water to drink and when the tour resumed, both were being pushed around in wheelchairs.

Aisyah’s lawyer Gooi Soon Seng said the women, who were wearing heavy bulletproof vests and handcuffed, were given wheelchairs because they complained of exhaustion.

High Court Judge Azmi Ariffin visited the check-in kiosk in the budget terminal where the two women allegedly smeared VX nerve agent onto Kim Jong Nam’s face on Feb. 13. The judge followed the path Kim walked to the airport clinic seeking help and retraced the movement of the two women, who were seen on security footage rushing to restrooms afterward to wash their hands.

Security videos of the murder were shown at the trial earlier this month and “the exercise today is to see for ourselves the actual locations and which cameras recorded the scenes,” Gooi said.

“I believe the visit to the crime scene will help strengthen the prosecution’s case because it will allow the judge to follow the women’s trail and understand why they took that path,” prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin told The Associated Press before the tour began.

Police clad in black uniforms, many carrying rifles and wearing masks, formed a security ring around the group as they toured the busy airport for more than three hours. Officials said the trial will return to the courtroom today, with the cross examination of the police investigating officer.

Huong and Aisyah, who have pleaded not guilty, are the only suspects detained in the brazen assassination of Kim, an outcast from North Korea’s ruling family who lived abroad in virtual exile for years. Their defense lawyers have said the women were duped by suspected North Korean agents into believing they were playing a harmless prank for a TV show.

Prosecutors contend the women’s conduct showed that they knew they were handling poison. Eileen Ng & Eric Talmadge, Sepang, AP