An Australian grandmother has been found not guilty of drug trafficking by a court in Malaysia.
Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, 54, was caught at Kuala Lumpur airport on route to Melbourne with 1.5 kilograms of methamphetamine in her bags.
The sentence comes after she claimed she fell victim to a US military romance scam and was tricked into carrying the drugs.
An Australian grandmother (pictured, centre) found not guilty of drug trafficking
Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto (pictured), 54, was caught at Kuala Lumpur airport on route to Melbourne with 1.5 kilograms of methamphetamine in her bags
The mother-of-four had hoped to escape the death penalty after the Malaysian government agreed to scrap mandatory capital punishment for drug trafficking.
Exposto told the High Court in September she fell for a scam masterminded by a certain ‘Captain Daniel Smith’, who claimed to be a US soldier based in Afghanistan.
Defence lawyers said that she was lured into carrying a bag – which she believed contained only clothing – by ‘Smith’ who asked her to take it to Melbourne from Shanghai.
She was in transit at Kuala Lumpur airport when she was arrested.
The sentence comes after Exposto’s (pictured) claims she fell victim to a US military romance scam and was tricked into carrying the drugs
Hugo Pinto Exposto (pictured), the son of Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto at the Shah Alam High Court
‘He [Smith] made me feel loved, he made me feel wanted,’ Exposto told the court, adding that the alleged US serviceman would send her photos of himself.
‘Smith would sing to me a few times a day and send love poems as well,’ she added.
Exposto said Smith had also asked to marry her in September 2013 at a time when her relationship with her husband was getting ‘a bit sour’.
Defence lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told reporters that Exposto’s testimony suggests her close online relationship with Smith.
‘There are probably thousands, mostly women, who have been conned into similar situations. Captain Daniel Smith is one of the many scammers,’ he said.
Two Australians were hanged in Malaysia in 1986 for heroin trafficking — the first Westerners to be executed in the country.
More to come
Tania Scivetti (pictured, centre), one of the lawyers of Australian defendant Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, is seen outside a courtroom at the high court in Shah Alam, near Kuala Lumpur