Donna Nelson, the Perth grandmother jailed in Japan after almost two kilograms of methamphetamine was found in her luggage, is back in Western Australia. She flew into Perth on Thursday night, 22 October 2026, under an international prisoner transfer and will serve the rest of her sentence at Bandyup Women's Prison in Perth's north.
Japanese officials confirmed she had left the country, the ABC reported on Friday. According to AAP, via the National Indigenous Times, her family were able to see her at Bandyup soon after she arrived.
How she ended up in a Japanese jail
Ms Nelson, 60, is an Aboriginal community leader and grandmother from Perth. She was arrested in January 2023 at Narita International Airport, outside Tokyo, after customs officers found the drugs hidden beneath a false bottom in her suitcase.
She told the court she had no idea the drugs were there. Her account was that she had been carrying the case for a man she met online in 2020 and hoped to marry. He called himself Kelly and said he was a Nigerian fashion business owner. She said he paid for her to fly to Japan by way of Laos to collect dress samples, and promised to meet her there. He never showed up, and he has never been identified.
A Japanese court found her guilty of attempting to import the drugs and sentenced her to six years in prison in December 2024. She lost an appeal in September 2025. A month later she dropped her last avenue of appeal, and her family switched their efforts to getting her moved to a prison back home.
"Finally home"
The family has campaigned for her return for most of the time she has been locked up. In a social media post after the transfer, they said their mother was finally home after 1388 days apart.
Human rights academic Hannah McGlade told the ABC the family deserved credit for bringing her back.
"They've done a remarkable job because she is now home." — Dr Hannah McGlade, human rights academic
Dr McGlade said Ms Nelson had endured very harsh conditions in a Japanese prison. She also pointed out that women around the world are often targeted by scammers and then jailed, as Ms Nelson was.
"I really hope there is leniency that can be shown to her now." — Dr Hannah McGlade
Daniel Morrisson, chief executive of the Wungening Aboriginal Corporation, told AAP the community had missed her dearly and he was glad she was now close to family and friends.
What happens now
An international prisoner transfer does not overturn a conviction or end a sentence. It lets a person convicted overseas serve the rest of their time in their home country, where family can visit and they can serve it in a familiar system. Ms Nelson has been in custody since January 2023, and she will now finish her six-year term in WA.
Reports so far have not said when she might be released, or whether she will be eligible for parole under WA rules. Neither the federal Attorney-General's Department, which runs Australia's side of these transfers, nor WA's Department of Justice had commented publicly by Saturday morning.
Why it matters
The case has drawn attention far beyond Perth. It sits at the point where romance scams and international drug trafficking meet. Australian authorities have long warned that criminal syndicates groom lonely or vulnerable people online and then use them as unwitting drug couriers. Ms Nelson's story, told in the ABC's Australian Story, made her one of the best-known examples.
Her return will reopen the questions her supporters have been asking all along: how much responsibility people tricked into carrying drugs should bear, and how far Australia should go to bring its citizens home from foreign prisons.
The news was shared widely on X on Friday night, including in this post linking the ABC report.
Photo: Greg O'Beirne via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0). File photo of Bandyup Women's Prison.
Comments