(4 Dec 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASOCIATED PRESS
Chiba - 4 December 2024
1. Donna Nelson’s eldest daughter Kristal Hilaire comes out of court
2. Hilarie’s phone
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Kristal Hilaire, Donna Nelson’s eldest daughter:
“We are disappointed and devastated by the court's verdict in our mum's case. We maintain that our mum was the victim of a romance scam. She is the victim of a crime and not a criminal. She has always been against drugs. As she said in her trial, she was duped and she did not know there were drugs in the bag. Her partner asked her to take it into Japan. We cannot say any more about the case at this time as we consider preparing for an appeal.”
4. Close up of Hilaire’s eyes
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Kristal Hilaire, Donna Nelson’s eldest daughter:
“But we want to make clear now we will never stop fighting for our mum and we will keep fighting until we can bring her home. This has been a really hard few weeks for our family and we are really proud of how we have all come together to support each other and our mum during her trial.”
6. Close up of Hilaire’s eyes
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Kristal Hilaire, Donna Nelson’s eldest daughter:
“I think it's far from lenient. You just have to look at how she looks now compared to how she looked when she arrived here. It's taken its toll on her. I worry about how she would handle another six years.”
8. Various of Hilaire leaving
9. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Rie Nishida, defense lawyer:
“I think this verdict is very unfair. I will continue to fight.”
10. Rie Nishida, defense lawyer, leaving
STORYLINE:
A Japanese court on Wednesday sentenced an Australian woman who says she was tricked into carrying amphetamines into the country to six years in prison, despite accepting her testimony that she was the victim of an online romance scam.
The Chiba District Court said it found Donna Nelson from Perth, Australia, guilty of violating the stimulants control and customs laws.
It ordered her to pay a fine of 1 million yen ($6,671) in addition to serving a prison term.
Nelson was arrested at Japan’s Narita International Airport just outside Tokyo on Jan. 3, 2023 when customs officials found about two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of phenylaminopropane, a stimulant, hidden under a false bottom in a suitcase she was carrying as checked luggage.
Nelson, 58, told the court that she did not know that drugs were hidden in the suitcase and that she was carrying them for a man she thought she loved and hoped to marry.
The man, whom she met online in 2020, told her he was the Nigerian owner of a fashion business. In 2023, he paid to travel to Japan via Laos, and asked her to collect dress samples from an acquaintance in Laos, her lawyers said.
She was supposed to meet the man in Japan but he never showed up, according to prosecutors.
Nelson has already been in custody for nearly two years. The court said 430 days of that will be counted toward her sentence.
Presiding Judge Masakazu Kamakura said that although Nelson was decieved, she had a sense that something was wrong with the arrangement and that something illegal could be hidden in the suitcase, and she could have stopped.
However, the judge said there was room for sympathy and imposed a shorter sentence than would be typical for the amount of drugs she was carrying.
Prosecutors demanded 10 years in prison and a fine of 3 million yen (about $20,000) in their closing argument last month.
Nelson’s lawyer Rie Nishida said the ruling was unjust and did not make sense, and that she planned to appeal.
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