The South Australian was serving a six-year term for smuggling 5.8kg of cocaine out of Colombia.

The former personal trainer from Adelaide was arrested at El Dorado airport in Bogota in April 2017 where the cocaine was packaged in 18 headphone boxes in her suitcase.

She was then sentenced in November.

Sainsbury walked free from El Buen Pastor women’s prison on Friday after spending three years behind bars.

This follows Colombia’s President Ivan Duque on Wednesday ordering the “humanitarian” release of more than 4000 prisoners to house arrest, in an effort to reduce overcrowding and prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Agence France-Presse reported that two prisoners have died from COVID-19 in the South American country.

As part of her parole conditions, the 22-year-old must remain in Colombia for another 27 months, according to Nine News.

Sainsbury said the experience made her grow as a person and she learnt a lot about herself.

“I learnt a lot about people, I’ve learned how to analyse people better,” she said in a 60 Minutes interview extract posted online by Nine News.

“I’ve learned not to trust people so much.

“It’s been definitely a massive learning curve but, at the same time, everything that I’ve been through in prison, everything that I learnt I wouldn’t change it because it’s made me a stronger person it’s made me who I am today.”