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Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto has spent three years in prison
An Australian woman given the death penalty in Malaysia for drug smuggling has had the sentence overturned.
Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, 55, was arrested at a Kuala Lumpur airport in 2014 after she was found carrying 1.1kg (2.4lbs) of crystal methamphetamine.
She has always maintained she was tricked into carrying the drugs after falling for an online romance scam.
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Malaysia’s highest court has now accepted her appeal and she is expected to be released soon.
Exposto was arrested in December 2014 while transiting through Kuala Lumpur en route from Shanghai to Melbourne.
After three years in prison, she was found not guilty of drug trafficking in December 2017, with the court accepting her argument that she had been unaware of the presence of drugs in her luggage.
That was later overturned and she was sentenced to death. She spent 18 months on death row before the Federal Court in Putrajaya accepted her appeal on Tuesday.
“The appeal is allowed. The appellant is freed and discharged,” said chief justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat.
Anyone found in possession of at least 50g (1.75oz) of crystal meth is considered a trafficker in Malaysia.
Three Australians have been put to death for drug offences in Malaysia: Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers in 1986, and Michael McAuliffe in 1993.