SEPANG, Malaysia: An Australian mother-of-four was charged in Malaysia with the capital crime of drug trafficking on Friday, but her lawyers insisted she was innocently duped into carrying a bag that appeared to contain only clothing.

Customs officers hauled Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto into a court outside the capital Kuala Lumpur in handcuffs and with a coat covering her head, ignoring questions from a pack of mostly Australian journalists.

Inside the court she was charged, just a day before her 52nd birthday, according to her lawyers, with drug trafficking, which brings a mandatory penalty of death by hanging upon conviction in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

A plea, however, is not expected until early next year as the case makes its way to a higher court.

Exposto, an Australian citizen since 1985 who hails from East Timor, was arrested on Dec. 7 after arriving at Kuala Lumpur International Airport en route from Shanghai to Melbourne.

A routine customs check had discovered a hidden compartment in a bag she carried, which contained 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine, or “ice.”

Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, her Malaysian lawyer Shafee Abdullah said Exposto had told her attorneys: “I am innocent, I didn’t know that there were drugs in the bag.”

Exposto maintains she was given the suspect bag by a stranger in Shanghai who had asked her to take it Melbourne, Shafee said.

He said Exposto had voluntarily offered her bags for customs inspection as she attempted to enter Malaysia, having gone through immigration mistakenly, unfamiliar with the airport.