PRIME Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today denied the government intervened in the Kim Jong-nam murder case after one of the accused, Indonesian Siti Aisyah, walked free yesterday.

Siti Aisyah’s freedom from a murder charge against the North Korean was a court decision and followed the rule of law, he said.

“This is a decision made by the court, they deliberated and the charge had been withdrawn,” he said at a press conference at the Parliament lobby today. 

There are provisions that allowed for charges to be dropped or withdrawn, he said.

“There’s a process following rule of law. There is a law to drop charges and that’s what happened.”  

The comments come after the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur said yesterday Siti Aisyah was freed as the result of a long negotiation process between Jakarta and Putrajaya at the orders of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

In a statement after Siti Aisyah was discharged without an acquittal, the embassy said Jokowi had ordered efforts to secure her release immediately after she was arrested on February 15, 2017, two days after Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was murdered at klia2.

“In line with the president’s orders, this issue was always raised at every bilateral meeting between Indonesia and Malaysia, at every level from the president to foreign ministers or at the ministerial level,” it said.

It added that the final process to secure Siti Aisyah’s release was done through mutual legal assistance between the two countries.

The prosecution did not provide any reason for dropping the murder charge yesterday. 

The Indonesian was jointly charged with Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong 1½ years ago. – March 12, 2019.