After spending more than two years in a Mexican prison, Brenda Martin is back home in Canada. Her plane landed in Breslau, Ont., at about 6 p.m. ET on Thursday.
CTV's National Affairs correspondent Lisa LaFlamme said news of her flight back to Canada broke after an inmate at Puente Grande women's prison near Guadalajara -- where Martin was being held -- phoned a Martin friend.
LaFlamme said the prisoner reportedly phoned Martin's advocate Deb Tieleman and said, "She's gone! She's gone! You must be very happy."
Tieleman had worked diligently to put and keep Martin's case into the media and government spotlight. She told Â鶹´«Ã½net shortly after Martin's plane landed that she felt the need to help a childhood friend, whom she had not seen in 32 years, after she learned about her plight.
"When I looked into the case and saw what a travesty it was, I just felt compelled to get involved," she said.
LaFlamme said the prisoner transfer arranged by Mexican and Canadian authorities will probably send Martin to the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont.
Canadian parole rules will now apply, and her release will be up to the National Parole Board, according to Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day.
In Canada, a federal prisoner is eligible to apply for day parole after serving one-sixth of her sentence and full parole after serving one-third.
Martin's lawyer, Guillermo Cruz Rico, says Martin may be incarcerated for a short while.
"Brenda has to go through a process," he said.
"At some point, she's going to be able to apply for parole as well. That has to be before the parole board. At some point, we're going to find out if Brenda would be able to get free in a couple of months."
Tielman told Â鶹´«Ã½net's Mike Duffy Live that she believes the government wants to assess her friend's physical and mental state. Mexican prison officials had kept Martin on a suicide watch for the latter part of her stay in the Mexican prison.
Marjorie Bletcher, Martin's mother, told Mike Duffy Live she never gave up hope that her daughter would be allowed to return home. She said she's hoping that Martin will be freed from the Canadian detention facility by Mother's Day.
"That would be the best Mother's Day gift I ever got," Bletcher said.
Bletcher also thanked Tielman, calling her a "guardian angel."
"I have adopted her. She can be my daughter, too," she said.
Last month, a Mexican judge found Martin guilty of involvement with her former boss' Internet fraud scheme.
He sentenced the 51-year-old native of Trenton, Ont., to a minimum of five years in jail and fined her about $3,500. The federal government loaned Martin the money to pay the fine.
She had spent two years in a Mexican prison before hearing her verdict.
LaFlamme said the Mexican officials appear to have wanted Martin out of their country as much as she wanted to get out.
"This woman inside that prison was making so much noise on the outside that all this Canadian media had converged on the prison," LaFlamme said on Mike Duffy Live.
The media campaign brought Martin's case to the attention of high level officials in the government, including two cabinet ministers and even Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Government officials maintained that they could not influence another country's justice system, but they did work to have Martin returned to Canada based on treaties between Ottawa and Mexico.
Jason Kenney, Canada's secretary of state for multiculturalism, made two visits to Mexico in an effort to negotiate Martin's return to Canada.
"She's probably immediately eligible to apply for parole," Kenney told CTV's Canada AM during his second trip last week.
