Donna Nelson launches appeal in Tokyo court

Indigenous grandmother Donna Nelson has launched an appeal in a Tokyo court against her six-year sentence for smuggling drugs into Japan.

Nelson’s legal team are planning to use evidence from a romance scam expert who claims she was vulnerable and would not have known she was carrying drugs.

Nelson, 58, is serving a six-year prison sentence for smuggling methamphetamine into the country in January 2023.

An appeal began at the Tokyo High Court today.

It was alleged a scammer, known as Kelly, had tricked her into carrying a bag with two kilograms of the drug inside.

Her daughter Ashlee Charles told the AFBC she been in “survival mode” since her mother’s conviction.

Evidence offered to the court will say Nelson was a ‘blind mule’ and that sophisticated methods were used to manipulate her.