Artist Jasleen Kaur wins Turner Prize for work exploring her Scottish Sikh identity

LONDON (AP) — An artist whose work exploring her Scottish Sikh identity includes a vintage Ford car draped in a crocheted doily won the U.K.’s prestigious Turner Prize on Tuesday, during a ceremony picketed by pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Jasleen Kaur was awarded the 25,000-pound ($32,000) prize by actor James Norton at the Tate Britain gallery in London.

Kaur used her acceptance speech to express support for scores of demonstrators outside. She is among signatories to a letter demanding Tate, which runs several major British art museums, cut ties with donors who are linked to Israel over its war in Gaza.

“This is not a radical demand,” Kaur said. “This should not risk an artist’s career or safety.

“We need a proper ceasefire now,” she said.

The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas health officials in Gaza. Israel launched the war in response to the militant group's Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack that killed some 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage.

A jury led by Tate Britain director Alex Farquhar praised the way 38-year-old Kaur “weaves together the personal, political and spiritual” through “unexpected and playful combinations of material.”

Her winning exhibition mixes sculpture, print, everyday items — including family photos, a Ford Escort car and the popular Scottish soda Irn Bru — and immersive music to reflect on her upbringing in Glasgow’s Sikh community.

Three other finalists – Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson and Delaine Le Bas – received 10,000 pounds ($12,670) each.

Named for 19th-century landscape painter J.M.W. Turner and founded in 1984 to reward young artists, the prize helped make stars of shark-pickling artist Damien Hirst, potter Grayson Perry, sculptor Anish Kapoor and filmmaker Steve McQueen.

But it has also been criticized for rewarding impenetrable conceptual work and often sparks debate about the value of modern art, with winners such as Hirst’s "Mother and Child Divided,” which consists of two cows, bisected and preserved in formaldehyde, and Martin Creed’s “Lights On and Off” -- a room with a light blinking on and off – drawing scorn from sections of the media.

In 2019, all four finalists were declared winners after they refused to compete against one another, “to make a collective statement in the name of commonality, multiplicity and solidarity.”

In 2021, all five finalists were collectives rather than individual artists.

The award was initially open to artists under 50 but now has no upper age limit.

Works by the four finalists are on display until Feb. 16.

Jasleen Kaur is announced as the winner of the Turner Prize 2024 at Tate Britain, in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (David Parry/PA via AP)

Jasleen Kaur is announced as the winner of the Turner Prize 2024 at Tate Britain, in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (David Parry/PA via AP)

Jasleen Kaur is announced as the winner of the Turner Prize 2024 at Tate Britain, in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (David Parry/PA via AP)

FILE - A woman walks past an artwork by Jasleen Kaur during the Turner Prize 2024 press preview at Tate Britain in London, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Krych, File)

FILE - A woman walks past an artwork by Jasleen Kaur during the Turner Prize 2024 press preview at Tate Britain in London, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Krych)

CHIBA, Japan (AP) — A Japanese court on Wednesday sentenced an Australian woman to six years in prison for smuggling amphetamines into the country, despite accepting her testimony that she was tricked as part of an online romance scam.

The Chiba District Court said it found Donna Nelson, 58, from Perth, Australia, guilty of violating the stimulants control and customs laws. It ordered her to pay a fine of 1 million yen ($6,671) in addition to serving a prison term.

Nelson was arrested at Japan’s Narita International Airport, near Tokyo, on Jan. 3, 2023, after customs officials found about 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of phenylaminopropane, a stimulant, hidden under a false bottom in a suitcase she was carrying as checked luggage.

Nelson told the court that she did not know that drugs were hidden in the suitcase and that she was carrying them for a man she hoped to marry.

The man, whom she met online in 2020, told her he was the Nigerian owner of a fashion business. In 2023, he paid to travel to Japan via Laos, and asked her to collect dress samples from an acquaintance in Laos, the court said in the ruling. She was supposed to meet him in Japan but he never showed up, according to prosecutors.

Nelson has already been in custody for nearly two years. The court said 430 days of that will be counted toward her sentence.

Presiding Judge Masakazu Kamakura said that although Nelson was deceived, she had a sense that something was wrong with the arrangement and that something illegal could be hidden in the suitcase, and she could have stopped.

Kamakura said Nelson was taken advantage of her desire to marry the man and that there is room for “sympathy” for what she did.

He imposed a shorter sentence than would be typical for the amount of drugs she was carrying, after prosecutors had demanded 10 years in prison and a fine of 3 million yen (about $20,000).

Nelson’s lawyer Rie Nishida said the ruling was unjust and that she planned to appeal. “We will fight until the end,” she said.

On Wednesday, Nelson sobbed as the verdict was read out. One of her daughters, Kristal Hilaire, wiped away tears as she looked on from her seat in the audience.

“We are disappointed and devastated by the court’s verdict in our mum’s case," Hilaire told reporters outside the court. “We maintain that our mum was the victim of a romance scam. She is the victim of a crime and not a criminal. She has always been against drugs.”

Hilaire said the past few weeks had been a difficult time for the family but that they have come together to support each other and Nelson during the trial, and that they will keep fighting “until we can bring her home.”

But Hillaire said she is worried about her mother, devastated and much thinner. “I worry about how she would handle another six years.”

Several other family members who attended earlier sessions, seeing Nelson for the first time since her arrest nearly two years ago, returned home ahead of the verdict.

Associated Press video journalists Mayuko Ono in Chiba and Ayaka McGill in Tokyo contributed.

Kristal Hilaire, a daughter of Australian citizen Donna Nelson, speaks to reporters at the Chiba District Court before the verdict for Nelson in a drug smuggling case, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Chiba, east of Tokyo. (AP Photo/Mari Yamaguchi)

Kristal Hilaire, a daughter of Australian citizen Donna Nelson, speaks to reporters at the Chiba District Court after the verdict for Nelson in a drug smuggling case, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Chiba, east of Tokyo. (AP Photo/Mari Yamaguchi)

Kristal Hilaire, a daughter of Australian citizen Donna Nelson, speaks to reporters at the Chiba District Court after the verdict for Nelson in a drug smuggling case, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Chiba, east of Tokyo. (AP Photo/Mari Yamaguchi)

The Chiba District Court is seen where the opening day of the trial over Australian citizen Donna Nelson for allegedly attempting to import drugs into Japan is taking place Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Chiba, near Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Family members of Australian citizen Donna Nelson walk out from the Chiba District Court after the opening day of the trial over Nelson for allegedly attempting to import drugs into Japan Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Chiba, east of Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)