Maria’s ordeal not over

MALAYSIAN prosecutors have lodged an appeal against the sensational acquittal this week of Sydney grandmother Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto on drugs charges, which could take months to resolve.

The 54-year-old, from Sydney’s west, now faces an anxious wait for the next steps after a court in Kuala Lumpur this week found her not guilty of drug trafficking and spared her the death penalty.

Ms Exposto is currently being held in an immigration detention facility in Kuala Lumpur. Her freedom was short-lived because her stay visa had expired by the time of her acquittal and the judge had ordered her deportation from the country.

It is expected that it will now take three to six months for the prosecution’s appeal to be heard.

Ms Exposto was visited at the detention centre by her son Peter, who attended Wednesday’s verdict announcement.

Her lawyer, Tania Scivetti, said Ms Exposto had been incredibly composed both before and after the verdict, in which the judge found that she had been duped unknowingly into being a drug mule by a man she met in an online love scam.

“She was very happy. She said: ‘I always knew it would happen because I am innocent’,” Ms Scivetti said of Ms Exposto’s calm reaction to the verdict.

Ms Exposto had already served three years behind bars in Malaysia before this week’s not guilty verdict.

She was arrested in December 2014 when she arrived in Kuala Lumpur on a flight from Shanghai and was transiting to Melbourne with 1.5kg of methamphetamine in her luggage.