A German woman has been released from prison in Venezuela and returned to Germany on Sunday after more than two and a half years following intensive diplomatic efforts by the German Foreign Office.
A spokeswoman for the 30-year-old woman told dpa that she landed in Munich on Sunday, was picked up from the airport by her parents and is "doing well under the circumstances."
The woman, who comes from the town of Bad Urach in the south-western German state of Baden-Württemberg, had been sentenced to 12 years in prison in Venezuela for allegedly smuggling half a kilogramme of marijuana.
She has consistently denied the allegations, but her appeals against the sentence were rejected by the local courts in Venezuela.
Authorities there initially denied requests by German diplomats to visit the woman, claiming security concerns, according to a report from Spiegel magazine.
Spiegel reported that the German Foreign Office had made intensive efforts to secure the woman's release over the past two and a half years. Circles involved in the negotiations said that the "prospect of a humanitarian solution" had arisen as a result of a telephone conversation.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock reportedly spoke directly to her Venezuelan counterpart, Yván Gil Pinto, in mid-June of this year to make a plea for the woman's release.
"I am happy and relieved that our efforts and our relentlessness to secure the young woman's release have been successful," wrote the 30-year-old's lawyer, Nikolaos Gazeas.
Gazeas said that releases of this kind would not be possible without dedicated diplomatic efforts.
Venezuela has been under the authoritarian rule of Nicolás Maduro since 2013, who has led crackdowns on the opposition. In recent years, foreign citizens from Western countries have repeatedly been arrested in Venezuela on charges that their home countries dismiss as arbitrary.