An Australian who claims she was duped into smuggling drugs is found guilty by a Japanese court.

On Wednesday, a Japanese court accepted an Australian woman’s testimony that she was duped as part of an online romance scam, but sentenced her to six years in prison for smuggling amphetamines into the nation.

Donna Nelson, 58, of Perth, Australia, was found guilty of breaking the laws governing the control of stimulants and customs, according to the Chiba District Court. In addition to her jail sentence, it mandated that she pay a fine of one million yen.

At Narita International Airport, which is close to Tokyo, Nelson was detained on January 3, 2023, when customs officers discovered approximately 2 kilograms of the stimulant phenylaminopropane concealed beneath a false bottom in a suitcase she was checking.

In court, Nelson stated that she was unaware that drugs were hidden in the suitcase and that she was carrying them for a man she hoped to marry.

She met the man online in 2020 and he told her he owned a fashion company in Nigeria. According to the court’s ruling, he paid to travel to Japan through Laos in 2023 and requested that she gather dress samples from a friend in Laos. Prosecutors claim that although she was meant to meet him in Japan, he never did.

Nelson has already spent almost two years behind bars. According to the court, 430 days will be applied to her sentence.

Even though Nelson was duped, presiding judge Masakazu Kamakura stated that she could have prevented it because she had a feeling that something unlawful might be concealed in the suitcase and that the arrangement was off.

Kamakura said Nelson was taken advantage of her desire to marry the man and that there is room for “sympathy” for what she did.

He imposed a shorter sentence than would be typical for the amount of drugs she was carrying, after prosecutors had demanded 10 years in prison and a fine of 3 million yen.

Nelson’s lawyer Rie Nishida said the ruling was unjust and that she planned to appeal. “We will fight until the end,” she said.

On Wednesday, Nelson sobbed as the verdict was read out. One of her daughters, Kristal Hilaire, wiped away tears as she looked on from her seat in the audience.

“We are disappointed and devastated by the court’s verdict in our mum’s case,” Hilaire told reporters outside the court. “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.”

The family has been through a tough few weeks, but Hilaire said they have united to support Nelson and each other throughout the trial and will continue to fight “until we can bring her home.”

However, Hillaire stated that she is concerned about her mother, who is devastated and significantly thinner. “I’m concerned about how she would manage six more years.”

Before the verdict, a number of other family members who had attended previous sessions and saw Nelson for the first time since her arrest almost two years prior went home.