Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, held in Malaysia over drugs charges. Photo: Facebook

A Sydney mother of four facing the death penalty in Malaysia claims she is innocent and was innocently carrying a bag that allegedly contained methamphetamines.

Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, 51, of Liverpool, told lawyers she was asked to carry a soft-bag containing documents from Shanghai for a US army soldier in Afghanistan.

Her Malaysian lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, says Mrs Pinto appears to have a strong chance of proving her innocence and that she was "used by unscrupulous people".

Mrs Pinto was remanded in custody at a Kuala Lumpur court on Sunday pending a further court appearance on December 19.

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The court was closed to the public. 

Mr Shafee told journalists outside the court that Mrs Pinto told him it was her understanding the US soldier wanted the documents taken to Melbourne so he could arrange his retirement.

She said she was told that someone would be waiting at Melbourne airport to receive the bag.

Airport Customs director Chik Omar Chik Lim earlier said Mrs Pinto arrived at Kuala Lumpur airport around 5pm on December 7 from Shanghai and was to have taken a connecting flight to Melbourne.

"While passing through the scanner at the arrival hall we found syabu [methamphetamines] wrapped in plastic and stashed inside a secret compartment in her travel bag," he said.

"She was later handed to police for questioning."

The amount of the drug allegedly seized is worth the equivalent of $93,000 in Malaysia.

Under Malaysia's decades-long campaign against drugs the death sentence by hanging is mandatory if the accused is found guilty of carrying more than 50 grams of methamphetamines.

More than 440 people have been hanged in Malaysia since 1960.

Two Australians, Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers, were the first Westerners to be executed under the country's then new drug-laws in 1986 after being arrested on the island of Penang with 141.9 grams of heroin.

Michael McAuliffe, another Australian, was hanged in Kuala Lumpur in 1993 after being found with heroin in his back pocket at a Penang airport security checkpoint.

West Australian truck driver Dominic Bird, 34, escaped the hangman's noose in Malaysia in July after a more than two-year legal battle after his arrest at a cafe near his Kuala Lumpur apartment in March 2012.

In July, Malaysia's High Court ruled Mr Bird could go free after rejecting an appeal by prosecutors of his earlier acquittal. 

The prosecution's case against him fell apart amid allegations of police corruption, prompting calls for a moratorium on the death penalty in Malaysia.

The Sydney woman's arrest comes a week after two Australians were held in China on suspicion of smuggling a commercial quantity of the same drug in China.

Kalynda Davis, 22, has since returned home.

Her travelling companion, Peter Gardner, 25, is a dual citizen born in New Zealand who has lived in Sydney for many years. He went to Richmond High School in Sydney's north-west, and worked for a local building company.

New Zealand's consul-general has visited Mr Gardner in a detention centre in Guangzhou and said he was being supported by his family and legal representatives.

It is not yet clear why Ms Davis was released while authorities continued to hold Mr Gardner.

with Krishnamoorthy Muthaly