REFILE-Vietnam asks Malaysian for fair treatment of citizen accused of Kim Jong Nam murder

Vietnam has repeatedly called on Malaysia for a fair trial of one of its citizens accused of the murder of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of the North Korean leader, the southeast Asian nation's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Vietnam urged Malaysia to free Doan Thi Huong, accused of the 2017 VX poison murder of Kim Jong Un's half-brother, a day after a Malaysian court dropped the same charge against an Indonesian woman. Malaysia's attorney-general rejected that request on Thursday, and the trial has been fixed to resume on April 1.

"Vietnam has mentioned this case in all its exchanges with Malaysia and we have also requested that Malaysia conduct a fair trial," foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang told a news conference. "We very much regret that the Malaysian high court did not free Vietnamese citizen Doan Thi Huong immediately," she added. (Reporting by Minh Nguyen and James Pearson; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)