JAKARTA – Indonesian authorities are struggling to attain more information on Siti Aisyah, including whether she is really the woman arrested by Malaysian authorities along with a Vietnamese woman and a Malaysian man, who is said to be Siti’s boyfriend.

As of yesterday afternoon, the Directorate General of Immigration was still waiting for formal validation of Siti’s passport by the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, immigration spokesman Agung Sampurno said.

Although formal validation was pending, the passport shows her last exit from Indonesia was to Johor Baru through Batam on the morning of Feb 2.

The National Police, through their representative at the embassy in Kuala Lumpur, have also been trying to meet with Siti.

“We want to confirm identification because it is still possible that she is not Indonesian. If she is indeed Indonesian, we need to know her movements in Jakarta,” National Police spokesman Marti­nus Sitompul said.

Officials in Jakarta have said Indonesia would not meddle with Malaysia’s investigation into Siti, but Deputy Foreign Minister AM Fachir will ensure she “is getting legal assistance from the embassy”.

It is unclear whether Siti is a fo­­reign agent, but many Indonesians, including Vice-President Jusuf Kalla, seem to believe that, like many Indonesian migrant workers, she has been framed and therefore is a victim in the case.

Read also: Siti Aishah a ‘victim’ in Kim Jong-nam case: Indonesian VP

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KUALA LUMPUR – North Korea must respect and abide by Malay­sia’s law in regard to the post-mortem of that country’s leader Kim Jong-un’s half-brother Jong-nam, said Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar.

Dismissing an allegation that Malaysia was purposely delaying the process to release Jong-nam’s remains, the Inspector-General of Police said as long as DNA from his family had not been obtained, the investigation on the case could not be completed.

“They (North Korea) must abide by Malaysian law.

“While in Malaysia, everyone must obey and follow our rules and regulations, including North Korea,” he said yesterday.

Khalid was commenting on the allegation by North Korean Ambas­sador to Malaysia Kang Chol that Malaysia purposely rejected their claim for Jong-nam’s remains.

“If they disagree with police action, then they can seek advice from their lawyers,” Khalid added.

On Friday night, Kang Chol told journalists waiting at Hospital Kuala Lumpur’s mortuary, that Malaysian authorities had done a post-mortem on their citizen without permission.

“This is a violation of the human rights of our citizen and infringing upon our citizen, disregarding the elementary international laws and consular laws,” he said.

In another development, Selan­gor police chief Comm Datuk Seri Abdul Samah Mat denied rumours of a second post-mortem to be conducted on Jong-nam.

“This is just rumours and there is no truth to it.

Read also: N. Korea accuses Malaysia of working with its enemies

“If really a second post-mortem is conducted, it will require a court order,” he said.

Comm Abdul Samah said police would give priority to the family of Jong-nam to claim his body.

He said the police had received a request from the North Korean embassy to claim the body.

“Only the North Korean embassy has asked to claim the body, but our priority is the ‘next of kin’ and for them to identify the body and, following that, to ascertain who is the rightful claimant,” he said.

Meanwhile, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai assured the public that security at the country’s airports is not compromised, in the wake of Jong-nam’s killing at KLIA2.

Security on the “air side” of airports has always been at the highest level, he said.

“The incident happened on the ‘land side’. That is not to say security is bad there.

“There are high-resolution ca­­meras in the area and that was how police identified the suspects.

“The land side is not only guarded by the Malaysia Airports (Holdings Bhd) but the police as well,” Liow, also the MCA president and Bentong MP, told reporters after celebrating Chinese New Year with Bentong prison complex inmates.

Read also: North Korea to reject Jong-nam’s autopsy report, says envoy

Siem Reap – Angelina Jolie will unveil her new film on the horrors of the Khmer Rouge era on Saturday at the ancient Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia, a country the star shares a deep affinity with through her adopted son Maddox.

Cambodia’s king and survivors of the communist regime will be among some 1,500 people invited to the debut screening of “First They Killed My Father”, directed by Jolie and based on the memoirs of Loung Ung.

Loung Ung was five years old when Khmer Rouge troops, led by Pol Pot, swept into Phnom Penh plunging her family into a harrowing ordeal that saw them sent to brutal labour camps before her eventual escape to the United States.

In its quest for an agrarian Marxist utopia, the regime killed up to two million Cambodians between 1975-79 through execution, starvation and overwork.

It is the second movie by Jolie to tackle the subject of genocide – in 2011 she made a film about the Bosnian conflict featuring mostly local actors.

But her latest silver screen offering is more personal.

Jolie adopted her first child Maddox from an orphanage in Cambodia’s western Battambang province in 2002 and she has been given Cambodian citizenship.

The Hollywood star previously said it was Maddox who pushed her to make the film.

At a press conference in Siem Reap, Jolie described Cambodia as a “second home”, adding that she chose Loung Ung’s book because she wanted to tell the story of the Khmer Rouge era “through the eyes of a child”.

It also brought her closer to her son, she said.

“I wanted to focus not just on the war but on the love of family and on the beauty of the country and in fact I wanted to understand what my son’s birth parents may have gone through. And I wanted to know him better and I wanted to know this country better,” she said.

Maddox is accompanying his mother on the trip and was seen visiting the Angkor temple complex on Friday.

In a tribute to those who survived the brutal regime, Jolie has pushed to ensure the film would be both made by Cambodians and accessible to them.

Almost the entire film is in the Khmer language while the cast members and much of the crew were local hires, including the two child protagonists.

The film is also co-produced by Rithy Panh, Cambodia’s most acclaimed filmmaker.

He lost almost all his immediate family during the Khmer Rouge years but went on to produce searing documentaries that helped break the silence surrounding the genocide.

Loung Ung, who Jolie described as a “family friend”, said that while the film centred on her family’s experience, her story would be familiar to all Cambodians.

“I view it as the story of all of us,” she told reporters.

Despite the prosecution of a few top Khmer Rouge cadres, the genocide continues to be a controversial subject.

Strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was a former regime cadre before he defected and has run the impoverished country for more than thirty years, is opposed to any new prosecutions of regime leaders.

But the Cambodian government has welcomed Jolie’s film so far.

Veteran foreign correspondent Elizabeth Becker, one of a handful of western journalists to visit Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge era, described Jolie’s film as “heartrending”.

“You see how a country as beautiful as Cambodia could experience genocide,” she told AFP.

Jolie added that she hoped her film would remind viewers of the need to help children escaping war and persecution today.

“There are little Loungs all around the world today in many different countries, many different war zones where we have no access to them and we don’t know if they’re going to be alright,” she said.

The premiere will be followed by screenings across Cambodia, some seven months before the film is released to a global audience on Netflix.

Jolie’s arrival in Cambodia marks a rare public appearance since her high-profile split last year from Brad Pitt.

Together they raised Hollywood’s most celebrated family, with three of their six children adopted from overseas.

KUALA LUMPUR – The fourth suspect arrested over the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s half-brother Kim Jong-nam is the first North Korean citizen detained so far and has expertise in chemistry.

Ri Jong-chol, from Pyongyang, graduated in the science and medicine field from a university in North Korea in 2000.

Some 10 years later he was involved in research at a centre in Kolkata, India, until 2011.

Sources said that Jong-chol then returned to Pyongyang before he got an offer from an IT company based in Malaysia.

“It is still too early to conclude that he is behind the liquid poison believed to have been used to kill Jong-nam thus investigation is still underway.

“He is also being quizzed on the whereabouts of three other accomplices, who are still at large,” a source said.

Read also: Malaysian police arrest North Korean man in connection with Kim Jong Nam murder

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said the 47-year-old suspect was detained at about 9.50pm on Friday.

“Based on an i-KAD that he has in his possession, the suspect is identified as with date of birth on May 6, 1970, and a citizen of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (DPRK),” he said in a statement.

It is learnt that the suspect was arrested after police raided a condominium in Jalan Kuchai Lama at about 11pm on Friday.

On Thursday, Indonesian Siti Aisyah was arrested at a hotel in Ampang at 2am.

Police said she was identified based on CCTV footage at the airport and was alone at the time of arrest.

Her boyfriend was also picked up by police to assist with investigations.

On Wednesday, the first suspect, who holds a Vietnamese passport bearing the name Doan Thi Huong, was arrested at KLIA2 as she was preparing to board a flight to Vietnam.

She had taken a taxi from a hotel in Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi to the airport that day.

Read also: Fourth suspect arrested as Malaysian police hunt for those behind Kim Jong Nam’s murder

Jong-nam, 45, was killed by two women who splashed his face with a chemical at the KLIA2 departure hall at about 9am on Monday. He was about to leave for Macau.

Jong-chol has since been remanded for seven days until Friday.

It is learnt that the suspect often travelled in and out of Malaysia and has been in the country for at least a year.

Police are still hunting for three more suspects, aged between 30 and 50, linked to the case.

In another development, representatives from the North Korean embassy went to the Sepang district police headquarters (IPD) at about 4pm and spent about an hour there.

It is believed that the embassy officials went to the IPD to gain access to Jong-chol.

However, the officials did not stop to speak to journalists waiting outside the IPD.

Read also: Privilege and peril for North Korea’s first family