An Indonesian grandmother who spent about 15 years on death row in Malaysia for drug trafficking has returned home after receiving clemency, in a case that rights groups say exposes the systematic exploitation of poor migrant women in cross-border drug operations.

Ani Anggraeni – a name her trafficker put on her passport without her knowledge – boarded a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta on Thursday after the governor of Penang granted her a pardon on 19 March, just before Eid al-Fitr.

The grandmother, 66, whose real name is Asih, had never travelled abroad before she was deceived into carrying drugs across borders in 2011.

“I feel like it’s unreal, but it’s real,” she told the South China Morning Post. “I can only be grateful to return to Indonesia and meet my family.”

Asih left Indonesia in 2011 after a woman named Duwi offered her work as a carer in Malaysia, promising a high salary and covering her accommodation and travel.

But without her knowledge, Duwi falsified Asih’s name on her passport and instructed her not to use her real name when travelling, a tactic Hayat, the Kuala Lumpur-based anti-death penalty group that later took up her case, described as a common modus operandi used by human traffickers to deceive immigration authorities.

On arrival in Malaysia, Asih was directed to travel to Vietnam to collect a suitcase and deliver it to Duwi’s relative in the northern state of Penang. She was arrested at the Penang airport on 21 June 2011 after authorities found 3.87kg of methamphetamine in the bag. A Malaysian court sentenced her to death under the Dangerous Drugs Act in 2012.

During her time in prison, Asih survived endometrial cancer, underwent a hysterectomy and experienced multiple incidents of abuse, according to news reports.

In a joint statement, Hayat and Jakarta’s Community Legal Aid Institute said Asih’s case was about more than a conventional drug charge.

“It is a profound narrative of deception, exploitation, and systemic vulnerability,” they said, adding that it highlighted “the insidious ways women are ensnared by human trafficking syndicates, manipulated into illicit operations without ever fully comprehending the reality of their circumstances”.

The groups said Asih and women in similar situations were not masterminds but “victims of a flawed system that has failed to protect them”, and called her repatriation a critical legal and humanitarian precedent.

At least eight Indonesian women remained imprisoned in Malaysia after getting their death sentences commuted, the groups said, adding that they generally came from impoverished families, were recruited with job offers or romantic advances, and coerced into carrying bags containing drugs without their knowledge.

Asih’s release comes as Malaysia continues to work through the consequences of its 2023 decision to abolish the mandatory death penalty, giving judges discretion in 11 offences and allowing resentencing for those already on death row.

The number of people on death row for drug offences fell from 705 in 2024 to 40 in 2025, according to Hayat. An execution moratorium has been in place since 2018, with the last known execution carried out in 2017.