Donna Nelson found guilty of Japan meth smuggling plot

An Australian grandmother accused of smuggling 2kg of meth into Japan in a suitcase has been found guilty, despite her claims that she was the victim of an online love scam.

Prominent Indigenous leader Donna Nelson, 58, was convicted of the crime by a panel of three professional judges and six members of the public in a decision delivered in Chiba, 40km east of Tokyo, on Wednesday.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Donna Nelson sentenced to six years in Japan jail over drug smuggle plot.

She was sentenced to six years in prison, with the 430 days she has already served to be deducted from her time behind bars.

Nelson, who hung her head and cried as her future was made clear, was also fined $10,400.

“I believe this is a very unreasonable decision. We need to talk with Donna but we will fight until the end, until she gets freedom,” her lawyer Rie Nishida said outside the court.

“She’s devastated but she’s a strong woman so we will discuss and prepare for the next fight.”

At times an emotional Nelson looked over her shoulder at her family in the packed public gallery.

Nelson and her team have two weeks to launch their likely appeal, a process that could take up to a year to get back before a judge.

Loved ones have were quick to launch a GoFundMe to “free our mum and bring her home, where (she) belongs”.

Nelson, from Perth, has always maintained her innocence and told the court last month she had no idea drugs had been hidden in her luggage by a man she thought was her boyfriend.

Prosecutors in Japan — a country with strict drug laws — had asked for her to be thrown in jail for 10 years and fined $31,000 if found guilty.

Nelson was arrested at Narita International Airport outside Tokyo in January 2023 when customs officials found about 2kg of meth hidden in a double-bottom suitcase she was carrying.

The grandmother 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.

The man she thought she was romantically linked with told her he was a Nigerian fashion business owner and paid for her trip, her lawyers said.

She was supposed to meet up with him in Japan but he never showed, according to prosecutors.

Nelson was arrested on the spot and later charged with violating the stimulants control and customs laws.

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.

Her daughters had hoped the years of messages between Nelson and her romance scammer would show the court she at no time knew about the meth.

In delivering the verdict, the judges focused on messages which they said showed Nelson ought to have been suspicious enough not to carry a suitcase for the man.

The judges said they did accept she was deceived and for that they sympathised with her, pointing out the sentence was lighter than others given for the same offence.

Outside court, Nelson’s daughter Kristal Hilaire said six years in a Japanese prison away from home and family was in no way a “lenient” sentence.

Several other family members who had attended earlier court dates, seeing Nelson for the first time since her arrest nearly two years ago, returned home before the verdict.

Nelson’s daughters stated on GoFundMe that their “beloved” mother “was duped by her partner into carrying a bag into Japan which contained drugs”.

“Our Mum had no knowledge of this, and we maintain that she is a victim of a crime and not a criminal,” they continued.

As they consider preparing for an appeal to the guilty verdict which has left them “devastated”, Nelson’s daughters say they “will not stop fighting for our Mum”.

- With AAP