'LOL Assassin' Leaves Court in Bulletproof Vest

Doan Thi Huong charged in Kim Jong Nam's death Wednesday
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 1, 2017 7:41 AM CST
'LOL Assassin' Leaves Court in Bulletproof Vest
Vietnamese suspect Doan Thi Huong, center, in the ongoing assassination investigation, is escorted by police officers out from Sepang court in Sepang, Malaysia on Wednesday, March 1, 2017. Appearing calm and solemn, two young women accused of smearing VX nerve agent on Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half...   (Daniel Chan)

Because of a grainy security camera photo that went viral online, she is now known to many as the LOL assassin. But as Doan Thi Huong left a courthouse in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Wednesday after being formally charged with the murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's estranged half brother two weeks ago, she had a very different look—red, puffy eyes and a bulletproof vest. In court she seemed calm. But as the Vietnamese woman was taken away wearing jeans and a yellow shirt under the protective vest, she looked out at a bank of photographers and journalists with her eyes red and teary, her light-brown dyed hair disheveled and frizzy, reports the AP.

Siti Aisyah, the Indonesian suspect who was also charged Wednesday, appeared more somber outside court, her eyes downcast. She looked tired and her lawyer said afterward she was teary. Malaysian police say the two women rubbed VX nerve agent onto Kim Jong Nam's face, possibly at the behest of North Koreans. Video allegedly shows Huong lunging at Kim from behind in a crowded airport terminal while wearing a T-shirt emblazoned in big black letters with LOL, an acronym for laughing out loud. Kim was dead within 20 minutes. Huong, 28, and Aisyah, 25, deny they intended to kill Kim. They say they were hired to play what they were led to believe was a harmless prank on him for a TV show. If found guilty, they could be executed. (More Kim Jong Nam stories.)

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