RAWALPINDI: Court rejected Ayyan Ali’s request seeking exemption from appearance in the currency smuggling case on Tuesday.
Court issued warrants for her to be produced in the court, which happened when Ayyan failed to show up in court herself after being summoned.
Ayyan was arrested on March 14, 2015, on the charges of money laundering after Customs officials recovered $506,000 from her luggage at the Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport before she could board a flight to Dubai.
A Customs court in November 2015 indicted Ayyan for attempting to smuggle out more than $500,000, to which she pleaded ‘not guilty’.
She was granted bail in July 2015 after spending nearly four months in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail — and after her judicial remand was extended at least 16 times.
Later, she was also nominated in a case relating to a customs official’s murder, who was killed in mysterious circumstances in June 2015 while he was reportedly investigating the money laundering case against the model.
It was on this basis that the model was placed on the Exit Control List by the Interior Ministry, however the courts struck down the ban and allowed Ayyan to travel abroad.
