Hopes for the early release of an Australian grandmother languishing in a Japanese jail have been dashed, with her lawyers claiming she is the victim of a romance scam.
Donna Nelson, 57, from Perth, will spend at least another six months in a Tokyo prison after her trial for importing 1.9kg of methamphetamine into Japan was indefinitely delayed on Monday.
The delay was announced just two days before her scheduled trial, as Ms Nelson had already spent 18 months behind bars in the Chiba prison cell, where she claims she is kept in isolation for 23 hours a day.
It is understood the prosecution presented last-minute evidence on Monday to cause the latest delay, a tactic Nelson’s legal team opposed.
Defense attorneys also questioned the competence of a court-provided translator to allow the trial to proceed in both Japanese and English.
Members of Nelson’s family said they only learned of the postponement while they were on a plane from Perth to Tokyo to attend the trial.
“At this time, as a family we are still trying to come to terms with the news of the trial delay,” the family said in a statement.
“It is deeply upsetting for us as her family, but we cannot even begin to imagine how devastating the news will be for our beloved mother.”
Nelson has already spent 18 months in a Tokyo jail and now faces the grim prospect of waiting at least another six months to stand trial.
The prominent Indigenous community leader has not spoken directly to her family since her arrest at Narita International Airport in January 2023 with methamphetamine allegedly hidden in a tampered suitcase.
The family believes Nelson, who is also president of an Aboriginal health service in Western Australia, was forced or tricked into carrying the suitcase, which was not part of her luggage when she left Australia.
They said Nelson had been talking to a Nigerian man online for two years before she was arrested.
Nelson had travelled to Japan to meet the Nigerian man, known as ‘Kelly’, whom she met two years earlier through an online dating site called AfroIntroductions.
According to Nelson’s attorneys, his suitcase had a false outer lining to create a hidden cavity in which about two kilograms of methamphetamine was found.
‘Kelly’ claimed to be the owner of a high-end fashion brand.
Nelson’s daughters told the Sydney Morning Herald that the couple had exchanged messages for months and had discussed talking about a trip to Brazil.
The daughters also said the couple had planned to get married in Nigeria, wearing traditional African attire.
They said the man had gained Nelson’s trust by sending him an image of a document he claimed was his Japanese residency card and offering to finance overseas trips for some of his daughters.
After successfully convincing Mrs Nelson to visit him in Japan, ‘Kelly’ bought business class tickets to take her to Tokyo via Singapore, Laos and Vietnam.
The family believes Nelson met an associate of ‘Kelly’ during a three-day stopover in Laos, where he came to be in possession of the bag he carried to his arrest at the airport.
Prominent Western Australian woman Donna Nelson, 56, allegedly took a suitcase containing 1.9kg of “illegal stimulants” to Japan in January 2023.
Donna Nelson (second from right) was the Greens candidate for the Western Australian seat of Pearce in the 2022 federal election.
Nelson’s lawyers will argue that the drugs were planted and that she was the victim of a Nigerian love scam.
A new trial date has not yet been scheduled, but Nelson’s lawyers have been told it will not be before January 2025, two years after his arrest.
Nelson was the Greens’ candidate for the Western Australian seat of Pearce in the 2022 federal election.
