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SBS.com Lawyer Muhammad Shaffee Abdullah claims Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto is an innocent victim of the drug trade. An Australian grandmother faces the death penalty after being caught with 1.5 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto could be hanged for trafficking the drug, more commonly known as ice, reports the Sydney Daily Telegraph.
The 51-year-old was on a flight from Shanghai to Melbourne, and the plane made a scheduled stop in Kuala Lumpur.
Vincent Thian/AP An Australian woman traveling from Shanghai to Melbourne made a stop in Malaysia that led to her arrest in drug trafficking and a potential death sentence The mother of four claims she has been set up and said the drugs were contained in a bag meant for her fiancee, a U.S. soldier serving in Afghanistan.
The drugs were apparently stitched inside a special compartment inside the bag, said the Telegraph.
SBS.com One-and-a-half kilograms of crystal methamphetamine were found stitched in a hidden compartment inside Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto’s bag, the Sydney Daily Telegraph reported. Her lawyer, Muhammad Shaffee Abdullah, said, "There is a very strong chance that she is one of those naive and innocent mules that has been used by some unscrupulous people — she doesn't seem to know what is going on."
Exposto was remanded in custody on Sunday and will appear in court again on Friday.
Malaysia takes a hard approach to drugs and introduced a death penalty in the 1980s.