Sydney grandmother Maria Exposto returns home after escaping death penalty in Malaysia
A Sydney woman who cheated the gallows in Malaysia after being acquitted of drug trafficking says she's "very happy" to have touched down safe and sound in Sydney.
Maria Exposto, 55, was freed on Tuesday after the full bench of the Federal Appeal Court of Malaysia agreed with her lawyer that she was an innocent dupe and had not known she was carrying drugs.
Her lawyers argued she was the "perfect textbook dummy" and the victim of an online romance scam.
Maria Exposto arrives at Sydney International airport for an emotional reunion with her brother John. AAP
Ms Exposto arrived back in Sydney this morning. AAP
Maria Exposto: "I'm going to sleep like an angel." AAP
Ms Exposto arrived in Sydney on a flight from Kuala Lumpur on Friday just before 10am and greeted family members in the arrivals hall about 11.15am.
"I am very happy," she told reporters.
"I'm going to sleep like an angel. Like a little baby."
Her son Hugo earlier this week said his family was delighted with the decision and they "had just tried to take it one day at a time and do everything we can" throughout the five-year ordeal.
According to defence lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Ms Exposto fell prey to an internet romance scam initiated by a man who identified himself as "Captain Daniel Smith".
The man said he was a US soldier stationed in Afghanistan, a widower whose wife had died in a car accident and the father of a teenage son.
Maria Exposto was freed by a Malaysian court this week. EPA/AAP
Mr Abdullah said the scam had lasted a couple of years and Ms Exposto had sent money to "Smith" before flying to Shanghai, China, in 2014.
They intended to meet there, where he could request her help lodging documents for his retirement from the military.
"Smith" did not show up in China but an American who claimed to be his friend did.
Shortly before her scheduled departure, he asked her to take a black backpack, which Ms Exposto believed contained clothes, to Melbourne.
Drugs were found in the bag after Ms Exposto landed in Kuala Lumpur in transit on her way home to Sydney in December 2014.
She volunteered the bag for a search after a scan at the airport revealed "something green" and 1.5 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine was found.
She was acquitted by the High Court in December 2017 after the judge found she was scammed by her online boyfriend and was unaware she was carrying the drugs.
However, the prosecution appealed the verdict.
In May 2018, an appeal court overturned the acquittal and Ms Exposto was sentenced to death by hanging for drug trafficking.
Malaysia has a mandatory death sentence for anyone found guilty of carrying more than 50 grams of a prohibited drug.
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