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Doan Thi Huong, 30, was charged along with an Indonesian woman
of poisoning Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with a banned
chemical weapon at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017.
Malaysian prosecutors dropped a murder charge against Huong
earlier this month, after she plead guilty to an alternate
charge of causing harm.
She was sentenced to more than three years in jail, but the term
was later reduced as Malaysian law can allow a one-third
remission off prison sentences.
Huong, who had been expected to be freed on May 4, will be
released a day earlier as the original date fell on a weekend,
her lawyer, Salim Bashir, told Reuters.
"We were informed by the prison authorities that she would be
released on May 3, and it is likely she will be flown back to
Hanoi on the same date," he said, when contacted.
Huong's co-accused, Siti Aisyah, was freed in March, after
prosecutors also dropped the murder charge against her.
South Korean and U.S. officials have said the North Korean
regime had ordered the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, who had
been critical of his family's dynastic rule. Pyongyang has
denied the allegation.
Defense lawyers have maintained the women were pawns in an
assassination orchestrated by North Korean agents. The women
said they thought they were part of a reality prank show and did
not know they were poisoning Kim.
Four North Korean men were also charged, but they left Malaysia
hours after the murder and remain at large.
Malaysia had come under criticism for charging the two women
with murder - which carries a mandatory death penalty in the
country - when the key perpetrators were still being sought.
(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Joseph Radford)
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