KUALA LUMPUR: The refusal of the attorney-general to withdraw the murder charge against Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong after doing exactly that without giving any reasons in the case of her Indonesian co-accused is “mind boggling”.
DAP legal bureau chairman Ramkarpal Singh said the decision also raises questions about the powers of the AG.
“No doubt, the AG has the power to discontinue proceedings against Siti Aisyah (the Indonesian co-accused) the way he did but why did he not do the same in the case of Doan?
“Both Doan and Siti Aisyah were charged together. Doan has a constitutional right to be treated the way Siti Aisyah was as she is entitled to equal protection of the law.
“As the AG need not give reasons for his decision, Doan will never know why she was treated differently from Siti Aisyah. If she is convicted, she will always wonder if Siti Aisyah was equally culpable.
“In cases like these, the discretion of the AG ought to be open to question, particularly when a person’s life is at stake,” he said in a statement.
Doan and Siti Aisyah were charged, together with four men still at large, with the murder of Kim Chol, the alias under which Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was traveling, at klia2 on Feb 13, 2017.
Ramkarpal said the fact that the duo were charged implied that the prosecution believed they had enough evidence against them.
Furthermore, he said, the trial judge made a finding that the prosecution had succeeded in establishing a prima facie case against both of them and called upon them to enter their defence against the said charge.
“This means that the court takes the view that if Doan and Siti Aisyah were to remain silent in their defence, they would be convicted of the murder of Jong-nam on the evidence presented by the prosecution.
“It was reported... that the AG acceded to the request of Indonesia’s Law Minister, Yasonna Laoly to drop the charge against Siti Aisyah on the basis that North Korea was responsible for the murder. If this was the case, why did the AG charge Siti Aisyah in the first place?” he said.
Ramkarpal said he was of the view that the charge against Doan ought to have been dropped the same way the charge against Siti Aisyah had been if the AG was of the view “that North Korea had a hand” in Jong-nam’s murder.
“Subjecting Doan to further prosecution and not her co-accused, particularly when a prima facie case has been found against both of them, is, with respect, unprecedented and regrettable.”