An Australian mother has faced her first day on trial in Malaysia over drug trafficking charges that will see her sentenced to hang if convicted.
Almost two years after Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto was arrested for drug trafficking, the 52-year-old appeared thinner as she was brought into Shah Alam High Court near Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
She stands accused of trafficking just over 1.1 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine.
If convicted the charge carries a mandatory death sentence.
Customs official Mohd Noor Nashariq told the court he was manning the scanning machines on December 7, 2014 when at around 3.40pm he saw a female passenger travelling from China.
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Upon scanning her bags they saw one of the items inside a black backpack appeared "green" so he took it to be checked again.
It was then, he said, that a second officer noticed odd pink and brown stitching at the back of the backpack Exposto was carrying.
When they opened the stitching, grey packages were inside, Mr Nashariq said.
Exposto's lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah sought an adjournment after this evidence was given, saying there were some "differences" between the custom official's testimony and that of his client.
He asked Exposto be able to inspect the two bags tendered to court as evidence.
Exposto's lawyers have previously said the Australian mum had fallen victim to an internet romance scam and believed she was in Shanghai to execute documents for her online boyfriend's retirement from service in the US army.
She has said she was handed the black backpack at the last minute and thought there was nothing but clothes inside.
Mr Abdullah recently represented the nine Australian men who were arrested at the Grand Prix after stripping down to budgie smugglers which had the Malaysian flag emblazoned on them.
He has also represented Australian man Dominic Bird, who was acquitted in 2013 of trying to sell methamphetamine to an undercover police officer. That case also carried the death penalty.
According to Amnesty International, Malaysia has earned a reputation for meting out death sentences in secrecy, saying at least two were carried out in 2013 without announcement or posthumous information about the executed individuals.
A further three men were hanged for murder in March this year.
Exposto is expected to return to court next week.
