[Reuters] Malaysian authorities said on Tuesday they had still to establish what was used to kill the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and the body had not been formally identified as no next of kin have come forward.
Kim Jong Nam was killed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13 with what police believe was a fast-acting poison. Malaysia's deputy prime minister has previously named the victim as Kim Jong Nam, though authorities have been unable to conduct DNA tests.
"The cause of death and identity are still pending," Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, director general of health at Malaysia's health ministry, told reporters.
The health ministry official said no DNA samples had been received from the next of kin. South Korean and U.S. officials have said they believe North Korean agents assassinated Kim Jong Nam, who had been living in the Chinese territory of Macau under Beijing's protection.
Malaysia has urged Kim Jong Nam's next-of-kin to claim the body and help with the inquiry, which has sparked a diplomatic row with North Korea, whose officials want the body handed over directly.
Malaysia recalled its envoy from Pyongyang after North Korea's ambassador in Kuala Lumpur cast doubt on the impartiality of Malaysia's investigation and said the victim was not Kim Jong Nam.
North Korean ambassador Kang Chol said on Monday that his country "cannot trust" Malaysia's handling of the probe into the killing.
[SCMP] Police carried out killings in the Philippine city of Davao under the instruction of then mayor Rodrigo Duterte, the current president, according to a former policeman who said he was part of a "Davao death squad" tasked with eliminating criminals.
Arturo Lascanas, a retired Davao policeman, said on Monday he had previously killed a radio host critical of Duterte at the behest of a driver and close aide of the mayor, and that Duterte had paid money to police for carrying out liquidations.
Duterte has repeatedly denied involvement in vigilantism either as president, or during his total of 22 years as Davao mayor until late 2015. He and the police have denied the existence of a Davao death squad, describing it as fiction.
"Of all the killings we did in Davao City, either we bury them or throw them into the sea, it is paid [for] by Mayor Rody Duterte," told a news conference at the Senate in Manila. "Most of the time 20,000 pesos sometimes 50,000 and depending on the status of the target, sometimes 100,000."
Breaking into tears at one point, Lascanas said he was speaking up because he was bothered by his conscience, including his role in the deaths of his two brothers, whom he ordered killed because they were drug users.
"I had my own two brothers killed. Even if I end up dead, I’m content because I’ve fulfilled my promise to the lord to make a public confession," he said.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2017 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
