Australian woman escapes drug trafficking in Malaysia

Thomson Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – An Australian mother of three escaped the death penalty on Wednesday after a Malaysian court found her not guilty of drug trafficking.

Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, 54, was found with more than a kilo of methamphetamine in her backpack while in transit in Kuala Lumpur, en route to Melbourne from Shanghai in December 2014.

Under Malaysian law, anyone found guilty of possessing more than 50 grams of illegal drugs is considered a trafficker and faces the mandatory death penalty.

The law was changed last month to remove the mandatory death penalty, allowing judges to exercise their own discretion. But the changes have not yet come into effect.

Exposto's lawyers said she was the victim of an Internet romance scam and was lured into unknowingly carrying a bag of drugs by a friend of her online boyfriend, who claimed be an American soldier serving in Afghanistan.

“I agree with the defense argument that the accused had no knowledge of the drugs in her bag,” Judge Ghazali Cha said on Wednesday.

Exposto's behavior during her arrest showed “that she was naive and that her behavior was that of an innocent person,” he said.

The judge referred Exposto to the Malaysian Immigration Department for deportation.

“I am happy now to be free,” Exposto said in brief comments to reporters.

Three Australian nationals were executed by Malaysia for drug trafficking: Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers in 1986, and Michael McAuliffe in 1993.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; editing by Tom Hogue)

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