KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – An Australian mother of four charged
in Malaysia with the capital crime of drug trafficking was duped into
carrying the drugs after falling for an online romance scam, her lawyer
said Friday.
Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, 52, was arrested December 7 after
arriving at Kuala Lumpur International Airport en route from Shanghai to
Melbourne.
A routine customs check discovered a hidden compartment in a bag she
carried, which contained 1.5 kilogrammes (3.3 pounds) of suspected
crystal methamphetamine, or “ice”. She was charged December 19.
Exposto has denied knowledge of the drugs, saying she accepted a bag
that she thought contained only clothing from a stranger who asked her
to take it to Melbourne.
One of her lawyers, Tania Scivetti, said Exposto had become involved
in an online romance with a person claiming to be a US serviceman.
She travelled to Shanghai to meet him, only to discover that another
person had been posing as her supposed love interest.
It was there that
she was tricked into carrying the drugs, Scivetti said.
“Basically she had been duped into believing she was going to see
him, but instead she was duped into becoming a (drug) mule,” Scivetti
said.
- Scivetti provided no further details. Drug-trafficking carries a mandatory sentence of death by hanging upon conviction in Muslim-majority Malaysia. Anyone with at least 50 grammes of “ice” is considered a trafficker, subject to the death penalty. Exposto originally hails from East Timor but has been an Australian citizen since 1985, her lawyers have said.
- She appeared in a court outside Kuala Lumpur on Friday for the scheduled presentation of test results on the substance found in the bag, but the court was told the chemist’s report was not yet ready. A new date was set for February 27.
- The defence is yet to enter a plea as the court now handling the case has no jurisdiction over death-penalty cases. The case is expected to be moved up to a higher court.
Hundreds of Malaysians and foreigners are on death row, many for
drug-related offences, though few have been executed in recent years.
Two Australians were hanged in 1986 for heroin trafficking; the
first Westerners executed in Malaysia in a case that strained
bilateral relations.
Last year, Dominic Bird, a truck driver from Perth, was acquitted of
traffickin.
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