KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia has detained a second woman in connection with the murder of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the Malaysian inspector general of police (IGP) said Thursday.
IGP Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement that the authorities "positively identified" the woman from CCTV footage at the airport. She was alone and carrying an Indonesian passport at the time of the arrest, he added. Based on her personal identification details, the suspect is 25-year-old Siti Aishah.
A 26-year-old Malaysian man, identified as her boyfriend, Muhammad Farid Jalaluddin, was also arrested to assist in investigations, police said in a statement at 7.30pm on Thursday.
Indonesia said later Thursday that based on provisional data, Siti Aishah appeared to be an Indonesian citizen.
The Indonesian embassy has requested consular access so it can provide legal assistance.
Malaysian police on Wednesday detained a 28-year-old woman holding a Vietnamese passport and said they were looking for a "few" other foreign suspects in connection with the apparent assassination.
The 28-year-old suspect was carrying papers identifying her as a Vietnamese national, Doan Thi Huong.
The two women struck on Monday as Kim Jong Nam was readying to board a flight to Macau where he has spent many years in exile, South Korea's spy chief Lee Byung-Ho has said, pointing the finger of blame at the North.
Malaysian police said Kim, a portly 45-year-old with a playboy reputation, was walking through the departure hall when he was attacked.
CCTV images that emerged in Malaysian media, purportedly of one of the suspects, showed an Asian woman wearing a white top with the letters "LOL" emblazoned on the front.
Kim’s body was being held at Kuala Lumpur Hospital following an autopsy, the results of which have not yet been released.
IGP Khalid confirmed on Thursday that Malaysia had rejected a request by the North Korean embassy to release the body to them without a postmortem examination. A senior government source told Channel NewsAsia the North Korean embassy approached Malaysian authorities on Monday, asking for the body, and indicating they wanted it cremated immediately without a postmortem.
North Korean embassy officials were seen visiting the hospital's forensics department in a diplomatic vehicle on Wednesday afternoon and again overnight.
Malaysia has not officially confirmed that the body belongs to Kim Jong Nam, despite South Korean reports saying that fingerprints have proven this to be the case.