KUALA LUMPUR: An Australian woman who claims she was duped by an online love scammer faces a possible death sentence for drug trafficking in Malaysia.
Prosecutors say a chemist’s report has confirmed the substance found in a bag belonging to Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto is crystal methamphetamine.
The 52-year-old mother of four was arrested on December 7 at Kuala Lumpur airport with 1.1 kilograms of the drug, also known as ice, court documents allege.
Prosecutor Hasifulkhair Jamaluddin told the magistrate’s court on Thursday Exposto had been trafficking methamphetamine based on the chemist’s report.
Magistrate Noor Hafizah Salim then ordered the case be transferred to the high court.
Exposto claims she was tricked into transporting the drugs by a man she met online who claimed to be an American soldier serving in Afghanistan.
She said the soldier asked her to carry some documents related to his retirement on a flight from Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur.
The mother said just before the flight a man she did not know handed her a bag when she left for the airport in a taxi.
Malaysia has a mandatory death penalty by hanging for anyone found guilty of carrying more than 50 grams of a drug.
Authorities previously said Exposto was trafficking 1.5kg of methamphetamine.
Exposta, who was wearing a white blouse and black pants, looked nervous when the amended charge was read to her.
The defence is yet to enter a plea until the case reaches the high court since the lower magistrate’s court has no jurisdiction to hear death penalty cases.
Later as she was being led out of the detention room in handcuffs, the Australian said she was innocent and nodded her head three times.
“Yes (I am innocent),” she said with a smile.
No date has been set for the high court hearing but defence lawyers said the trial could begin later this year.
“We are confident we can show her innocence at the trial,” Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, her counsel, told news agency AFP.
Defence lawyers say Exposto was duped into carrying a bag – which she believed contained only clothing – by a stranger who asked her to take it to Melbourne.
She had travelled to Shanghai after falling for an online romance scam by a person claiming to be a US serviceman, according to lawyers.
Customs officers discovered the drugs stitched into the compartment of a backpack.
