Jong Nam murder: Suspect’s dad says she’s not brave enough to kill
Doan Thi Huong’s father says his ‘gentle’ daughter is afraid of frogs and rats, can’t possibly be brave enough to kill.
KUALA LUMPUR: The father of the Vietnamese woman suspected of being involved in the death of Kim Jong Nam says he doesn’t believe she is brave enough to kill someone.
According to Vietnamese media reports uploaded on YouTube, Doan Van Thanh, the father of Doan Thi Huong, describes his daughter as a “gentle” person.
“How could she be brave enough to do it? She’s afraid of frogs and rats, what more to do something like that?” he said in reference to the alleged killing of Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, on Feb 13.
Thi Huong, 28, was arrested at klia2 on Feb 15, two days after the alleged killing, in which she and her accomplice, an Indonesian national Siti Aishah – also a suspect in the killing – wiped a liquid containing an unidentified substance on Jong Nam’s face.
Thi Huong’s niece, Dinh Thi Quyen, 18, said her aunt was a “kind hearted and gullible” woman, and that she may have been tricked into killing Jong Nam.
It was previously reported that Thi Huong had said she was told by Siti Aishah that the “attack” on Jong Nam was part of a “prank”.
But yesterday, Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said investigations showed Thi Huong and Siti Aishah knew that the liquid they wiped on Jong Nam’s face was poisonous and that the duo had even practised the act in Pavilion and KLCC.
Previously, AP reported that Thi Huong left her village in the Nam Dinh district 10 years ago to study pharmacy in Hanoi and rarely returned home. The last time she met her family was in late January.
According to Thi Quyen, Thi Huong had last contacted her on Feb 14, a day after Jong Nam’s death, to talk about a blouse she liked at a store in Hanoi.
Earlier today, Reuters reported that a Facebook account said to belong to Thi Huong, had a link to the page of the Vietnam Idol talent show. This FB account was in the name of “Bella Tron Tron Bella” – Chubby Bella. There had been no posts on the page after November.
According to Reuters, a woman bearing a close resemblance to Thi Huong sang on the show as contestant number 67816 on June 3, 2016. The contestant gave Nam Dinh as her home town but her name was given as Dinh Thi Khuyen.
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However, facial recognition tools give a match to the pictures released by Malaysian police of Thi Huong in custody.