An Australian accused of smuggling amphetamines in a suitcase has appeared in a Japanese court 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. or signup to continue reading Donna Nelson from Perth, Australia was arrested at Japan's Narita International Airport just outside Tokyo when customs officials found about 2kg 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 in 2020, 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.
Monday's trial comes weeks after the recent acquittal of 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 largely 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.
The man told her he was the Nigerian owner of a fashion business and paid for her trip to Japan via Laos, her lawyers said.