Special forces team at mortuary, but not because of Han-sol

Two Stafoc members on duty at the mortuary in HKL

KUALA LUMPUR: A Special Task Force on Organised Crime (Stafoc) team was deployed overnight at Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) mortuary because of the high profile nature of the Kim Jong-nam case.

It was not due to the expected arrival of Jong-nam's son, Kim Han-sol, who was to identify his father's body at the mortuary, said Dang Wangi OCPD Asst Comm Mohd Sukri Kaman.

“It has nothing to do with that. We are concerned because this involves a high profile case.

“That was why we deployed Stafoc to keep guard, that is all,” he said in response to rumours that security was increased at the mortuary because of Han-sol's arrival.

Han-sol was rumoured to be arriving in Malaysia on Monday night, but reporters who rushed to the airport saw no sign of him. It is unknown if he is already in the country, or whether he is even on the way.

ACP Sukri said the Stafoc team ended its shift at 8am Tuesday, after keeping watch from Monday night. He added that there had been no threat so far.

He also confirmed that police had briefly taken in a Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) cameraman for questioning early Tuesday.

"We did not arrest him. We recorded his statement at the hospital and immediately released him.

“While taking his statement, we also verified the authenticity of his media identification documents,” he added.

ACP Sukri said police were acting on a report lodged by HKL’s auxilliary policemen, who became suspicious after seeing the cameraman wandering around the hospital.

He explained that it was standard operating procedure for police to investigate after receiving a report.

“It’s a normal investigation. He is not a suspect in the case. Once we were satisfied with his statement, we released him,” said ACP Sukri.

Security has been stepped up at the mortuary since last week to stop any unauthorised removal of Jong-nam's body.

Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was assassinated at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) on Feb 13.

His body was sent to HKL where a postmortem was carried out.

Four people have so far been arrested in the probe into his death.