Sydney woman remains in Malaysian jail despite being cleared of drug charges
SHE was duped into carrying drugs by an online scammer. But despite being cleared of charges, this Sydney grandmother remains locked up in a Malaysian prison.
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BAILED but still in jail.
A Sydney grandmother acquitted of drug trafficking charges and spared the mandatory death penalty remains locked up in a Malaysian prison awaiting appeal because she cannot raise the $10,000 bail money.
Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, 54, remains incarcerated in Kajang Women’s Prison in Kuala Lumpur where she has been held for more than four years since her arrest on December 6, 2014.
Ms Exposto was spared death by hanging when a Malaysian court found her not guilty of trafficking 1.5kg of methamphetamine and ordered her to be freed.
But she is yet to taste freedom because the prosecution appealed the acquittal and she has been unable to post the RM30,000 in bail.
And she still has the death penalty hanging over her head until the appeal hearing which has been set down for April 23.
Last December, the Shah Alam High Court exonerated Ms Exposto after the judge ruled that she was an “innocent carrier” but freedom remains elusive for the mother-of-three.
According to her lawyer Shafee Abdullah, Ms Exposto was initially offered bail so that she can be free while awaiting the lengthy appeals process.
Ms Exposto’s family was unable to raise the RM30,000 bail amount which is equivalent to about $9,722.48 on current exchange rates.
“We cannot get her out because she comes from a very poor family. She was offered bail but she could not execute the bail because of her poverty. The family could not afford it.
“I am very upset that a person who has been pronounced innocent remains incarcerated while facing appeal,” Shafee said on the sidelines of a case management meeting this week for Ms Exposto’s appeal.
It is understood that Ms Exposto had received legal aid from the Australian Government but the assistance did not extend to the bail process.
Shafee, a prominent Malaysian lawyer, said bail would have to be put up by Ms Exposto’s family or friends and not the Australian government.
“You see, as a bailor, you’ve got a lot of responsibility. If the person absconds, it will not make the government of Australia look good,” said Shafee.
In the meantime, Ms Exposto remains in the same prison she has been held in since 2014.
Initially, after she was found not guilty, Ms Exposto was due to be handed over to be detained by immigration in Semenyih, just outside the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, while awaiting appeal.
But Shafee says Ms Exposto’s transfer did not take place as it was preferable for her to remain in prison.
“She remains in prison because the Semenyih detention centre is terrible. At least Kajang is a proper prison, so they have proper food and all that,” he added.
Ms Exposto is scheduled to appear before Malaysia’s Court of Appeal on April 23 as prosecutors seek to overturn the High Court’s decision to let her walk free.
Ms Exposto’s legal team remain hopeful that she will triumph again. The Shah Alam High Court Justice Ghazali Cha accepted that Ms Exposto was duped by an elaborate online love scam and had no clue that she was carrying drugs across international borders.
Justice Ghazali, in his ruling, pointed out that Ms Exposto was naive enough to let her love for a man whom she met online overshadow everything, including her own family and her future.
“I agree that the accused did not know about the drugs concealed in the bag and the accused is an innocent carrier,” Justice Cha said.
During her trial, Ms Exposto recounted how she had fallen in love with a man she had met online, who she knew as Captain Daniel Smith, who purported to be a US soldier serving in Afghanistan.
Ms Exposto’s own marriage was on the rocks and “Captain Smith” wooed her with love poems and love songs.
This Captain Smith then persuaded Ms Exposto to travel to Shanghai on the pretext of signing retirement documents on his behalf as his “fiance”.
But on that fateful December 6, 2014 day, Ms Exposto agreed to carry a backpack purportedly containing presents of shirts wrapped in plastic for Captain Smith’s friend.
Ms Exposto was caught after she mistakenly surrendered her belongings for customs inspection despite not being required to, given that she was only on transit at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
The Cabramatta woman faces the death penalty if she loses the appeal process given Malaysia’s harsh anti-drug trafficking laws.
Under Malaysian law anyone convicted of trafficking more than 50 grams of illegal drugs is sentenced to death.
Originally published as Sydney woman remains in Malaysian jail despite being cleared of drug charges
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