The family of the Indonesian woman who was arrested over the killing of North Korean Kim Jong-nam near Kuala Lumpur, is surprised that she had gone to Malaysia.
As far as the family knows, the woman, 25, was working as a clothing salesperson in Batam, Indonesia, said her father.
The Indonesian woman is one of four people who have been arrested by Malaysian police over the murder of Jong-nam, older half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, on Feb 13 at the KL International Airport 2 in Sepang.
Jong-nam was at KLIA2 at 8am on that day to board a flight to Macau an hour later when a woman suddenly covered his face with a cloth laced with what is believed to be poison.
He sought help at a customer service counter at the airport and was rushed to Putrajaya Hospital but died on the way. He had come to Malaysia on Feb 6 and carried a passport with the name of Kim Chol.
Malaysian police have so far arrested the Indonesian woman; another woman who carried a Vietnamese passport; a Malaysian man and a North Korean man.
The man said his daughter only had primary religious school education but she was hardworking and showed determination to unshackle herself from poverty even as a young girl.
She was in her teens when she started working as a clothing salesgirl in Jakarta, he said to Bernama.
He dismissed local media reports saying that his daughter was fluent in English and Korean.
He said she was married to a businessman and they had a son. She and her husband divorced in 2012 and she left home to work in Batam.
"After she went to Batam, we hardly saw her. The last time she returned home was during Chinese New Year last month. She also said then that she was working as a salesperson.
"We are indeed surprised that she had gone over to Malaysia," he said when met at his home in Kampung Rancasumur, Sindangsari Pabuaran, in Serang.
Serang is the capital city of Banten province in the westernmost part of Java island.
She is the youngest of three siblings. Her two brothers work as labourers and their parents eke out a living selling potatoes and turmeric.
He said the family members came to know of her arrest from her in-laws last Thursday, but they received no other information since and no visits by any authorities until two days ago.
"Two days ago, a representative of the Foreign Ministry came and confirmed that my daughter had been arrested in Malaysia but we were not told what happened," he said.
He spoke highly of his daughter, saying she was an active child who made her parents proud as she was self-reliant and did not brood over the hardship she experienced.
"Despite being poor, she is a hardworking and friendly girl, but never naughty," he said.
He expressed the desire to meet his daughter.
"We can only cry thinking about the fate of our youngest daughter," he lamented.
- Bernama
