Five Vietnam Lawyers Volunteer to Provide Legal Help for Doan Thi Huong

By Defend the Defenders, March 07, 2017

The Vietnam Bar Federation has announced that it will send five lawyers to Malaysia to provide legal support for Doan Thi Huong, the Vietnamese citizen who was charged with killing the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last month.

After getting approval from the Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs, the federation will send four lawyers from the Hanoi Bar Federation and one senior lawyer from the agency itself. The selected lawyers are professional and have good English skills, it said.

The lawyers will cover their all the expenses, the federation said.

However, it should be noted that because Vietnam and Malaysia have yet to sign an agreement on bilateral legal assistance, Vietnamese lawyers cannot directly partake in the defense of Ms. Huong, said lawyer Do Ngoc Thinh, President of the Vietnam Bar Federation (VBF). He added that the Vietnamese lawyers can only provide legal support on the basis of respecting Malaysian laws.

Huong, 28, and Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, are facing death penalty under the charge issued by a Malaysian Court on March 1 with the murder of Kim Jong-Nam, the older brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a Malaysian airport last month.

Malaysian police accused the two women of having smeared VX nerve agent, a weapon of mass destruction and banned around the world, on Kim’s face at a Kuala Lumpur airport on February 13.

Both women claimed they thought they were merely taking part in a prank video.

Selvam Shanmugam, who was appointed by Malaysia’s authorities as Huong’s lawyer, said after the trial that she denied the charge and said that she was innocent. The Malaysian lawyer also travelled to Vietnam to meet with her family.

The next court will be held on April 13. Vietnam’s government has yet to send lawyers to protect Huong while Indonesia sent four lawyers to defend its citizen in the case.