Brenda Martin, the Canadian who was recently transferred back home after spending more than two years behind bars in Mexico, was released on parole Friday afternoon.
She is now back home with her mother in Trenton, Ont., where she wished Marjorie Bletcher a happy Mother's Day.
She walked out of the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont., earlier carrying a large plastic bag of her belongings. She had been held at the prison since returning to Canada on May 1.
Stepping into an awaiting car, an emotional Martin cried and thanked people she called "the three heroes" in her life -- her mother, her childhood friend and staunch advocate Deb Tieleman, and an Edmonton newspaper reporter who brought her case into the public eye.
Speaking briefly to reporters waiting for her outside the prison she said she was going to her family home where she would "cook dinner for my mother and step father and Debbie (Tieleman)."
Some of the conditions of Martin's parole include disclosing her financial records, and not having contact with convicted criminals. A Mexican court found her guilty of involvement in a fraud scam run by her former boss. Martin, 51, had said she was innocent.
National Parole Board spokesperson Carol Sparling said Martin was not a high risk offender.
"Those offenders are reviewed with only one criteria, which is if there is reasonable likelihood of them committing a violent offence," she said.
"The board found that there was no evidence in violence in this case and directed full parole release."
Martin's lawyer said he was relieved when he heard the news of his client's release.
"Thank God this process is over for her," Guillermo Cruz Rico told Â鶹´«Ã½net Friday evening.
He suggested that Martin could have some options should she wish to try to fight her conviction in Mexico.
Martin's plight garnered widespread public attention, pressuring the Canadian government to take up her case with Mexican officials. Ottawa eventually dispatched Conservative MPs Jason Kenney and Rick Norlock to Mexico.
Earlier this month, the Conservative government flew her back to Canada in a private jet -- that cost $83,000 to charter -- and transferred her to the Grand Valley Institution.
