CHIBA (AP) – An Australian woman accused of smuggling amphetamines in a suitcase appeared in a Japanese court yesterday nearly two years after her arrest, saying she is innocent and that she was tricked into carrying them as part of an online romance scam.
Donna Nelson from Perth, Australia, was arrested at Japan’s Narita International Airport just outside Tokyo when customs officials found about two kilogrammes of stimulants, or phenylaminopropane, hidden in a double-bottom suitcase she was carrying.
Nelson, 58, said she received the suitcase from an acquaintance of a man she met on social media and brought it from Laos to Tokyo as instructed. She was supposed to meet up with the man in Japan but he never showed up, according to prosecutors.
She was arrested on the spot and later charged with violating the stimulants control and customs laws. She has been in custody for nearly two years.
Yesterday’s trial comes just weeks after the recent acquittal of an 88-year-old former boxer, Iwao Hakamada, who was on death row for about half a century on wrongful murder convictions. That case rekindled concerns about Japan’s closed-door investigation processes and lengthy trials.
Nelson, in a brief statement at the Chiba District Court near Tokyo, said she did not know the drugs were hidden in the suitcase and that she was carrying them for a man she thought she loved.
Prosecutors acknowledged the case is linked to a romance scam but accused Nelson of smuggling the drugs, claiming she knew the contents of the suitcase.
Nelson entered the courtroom escorted by a pair of uniformed guards who removed her handcuffs and a rope around her waist as she took a seat to stand trial.
She repeatedly looked toward her daughters who were seated in the audience.
