Currency smuggling case: Court orders Ayyan Ali to appear for next hearing

RAWALPINDI: A customs court on Wednesday ordered model Ayyan Ali to appear before the court in a currency smuggling case or she will be declared an absconder.

Ayyan was arrested from Islamabad airport while leaving for Dubai on March 14, 2015 and $506,000 were recovered from her possession.

Judge Arshad Bhutta heard the case today and dismissed applications filed by the model seeking permanent exemption from appearance, disposal of the currency smuggling case and suspension of arrest warrants issued against her.

The judge ordered the model to appear before the court for the next hearing and said if she fails to appear, they “will initiate a process to declare her a proclaimed offender.”

The customs court had indicted Ayyan in November 2015 for attempting to smuggle over half a million dollars in cash out of the country, to which she pleaded not guilty.

She was granted bail in July 2016 after spending around four months in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.

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.