Overview

• Donna Nelson will not lodge a Supreme Court appeal after Tokyo's High Court dismissed her case last month, with a filing deadline set for Friday.
• Nelson was sentenced in December 2024 to six years in prison after nearly two kilograms of methamphetamine were found concealed in her luggage at Narita Airport in January 2023.
• She told the court she was deceived by an online romance contact who financed her travel, a claim the trial judgment noted while still finding her responsible.
• Appeal judges declined to accept proposed expert evidence on love‑scam psychology, limiting the impact of that defense on review.
• Her family says they will seek an international prisoner transfer involving Japanese, Australian and Western Australian authorities, a process they were told can take years even as they hope for a quicker resolution.