Justice Azmi Ariffin said after going through a voluminous number of closed circuit television recordings (CCTV), he found that both Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong were behaving “very different” before and after the alleged “attack” on Jong Nam.
“Doan and Siti were seen very relaxed before executing the alleged offence on Kim, but they were then seen rushing to the toilet in level two in the airport, from level three where the said attack took place.
“I cannot help but find two contrasting expressions from them.
“Were they rushing down to level two from level three and holding their hands away from them? Did they want to avoid being seen by Jong Nam and risk being arrested?” he said in pointing out the conduct of Siti and Doan in February last year.
He added that after they had cleaned their hands in the toilet, Siti Aisyah and Doan were seen behaving as their usual self.
The High Court had earlier ordered Siti Aisyah and Doan to enter defence over the murder charge levelled against them.
Meanwhile, Azmi said, the court did not rule out the possibility of a political assassination.
“Counsels for the two women have argued extensively that the ‘real killers’ are the North Koreans who were only identified as Mr Chang, Mr Y, Hanamori and James.
“However, they left Malaysia a few hours after Kim’s death and no statements have been recorded from them.”
Therefore, he said, “in all fairness’, given the lack of such evidence, he could rule not whether this was a political assassination case.
Siti is expected to make her defence on Nov 1 while Doan is expected to testify from Jan 7.
They are accused of murdering Jong Nam at the klia2 by spraying his face with VX nerve agent on Feb 13 last year.
They claimed trial to the charge in October. If convicted, they could face the death penalty.
Jong Nam, the eldest son of former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, was waiting to board a flight to Macau when he was attacked.
His death sparked a diplomatic row between Putrajaya and Pyongyang, with Malaysia recalling its ambassador and cancelling visa-free entry for North Koreans.
North Korea retaliated with a travel ban on all Malaysians in Pyongyang, trapping three diplomats and six family members.
They were able to fly out only after Malaysia agreed to hand over Jong Nam’s corpse and send three North Koreans wanted for questioning back to North Korea.
In June, however, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Malaysia would reopen its embassy in Pyongyang.
Siti Aisyah, Doan ordered to enter defence for Jong Nam’s murder