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An Australian woman was sentenced to die by a Malaysian appeals court on Thursday after being convicted of drug trafficking in the country.
Upon leaving Shanghai, Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto was approached by a stranger, who asked her to take a backpack back to Melbourne.
She was acquitted after the judge found she was scammed by her online boyfriend and was unaware she was carrying the drugs.
Exposto, from Sydney, said she did not know the drugs were there, and had voluntarily put the bag through the airport scanner during a stopover in Kuala Lumpur.
Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, 54, will face the mandatory death penalty after Malaysia's Court of Appeal found her guilty of drug smuggling, Australia's ABC News reports.
A Malaysian High Court judge ruled at the time that Exposto wasn't aware she was transporting the drugs and had fallen victim to an online romance scam.
She was acquitted of the death sentence in December, according to 9 News.
When officials looked closer, they noticed the stitching inside did not match that of the backpack and when they ripped it open, they found grey packages inside, customs official Mohd Noor Nashariq told the Shah Alam High Court past year.
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Expert witness Professor Monica Whitty says Ms Exposto fits the profile of the victim of a romance scam.
She did not know the drugs were there and even volunteered that her bag be scanned through an airport X-ray machine.
"An appeal will be filed in the Federal Court - the final appeal", lawyer Muhamed Shafee said, who added his client was "a strong person".
Malaysian lawmakers have voted to amend legislation so that capital punishment is no longer mandatory in drug-trafficking cases.
Another Australian, Michael McAuliffe, was hanged in Kuala Lumpur in 1993 after he was discovered with heroin in his pocket at an airport checkpoint, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
"Australia opposes the death penalty in all circumstances for all people", Bishop said in a statement. Late a year ago, parliament voted to remove the death penalty as mandatory punishment for drug trafficking, and leave it to judges' discretion instead.
Malaysia has executed three Australian nationals for drug trafficking in the past 30 years, leading to brief strains in diplomatic ties between the two countries.
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