Court rejected appeal exemption seeking appeal for appearing in money laundering case
The Rawalpindi customs court has issued arrest warrant for Pakistani supermodel Ayyan Ali during the ongoing money laundering case proceedings.
The judge Sheeraz Kayani had summoned Ayyan Ali in previous proceedings but she failed to appear before the judge for the 12th consecutive time.
The court, while hearing the case, expressed anger over the fact that Ayyan Ali continuously failed to show up in courts, the court later on issued arrest warrant to be produced in the court.
The customs court rejected Ayyan Ali’s request that her mother was ill and submitted an application seeking exemption from appearance in the currency smuggling case.
Model Ayyan Ali was arrested from Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport on March 14, 2015, on charges of money laundering after the customs officials recovered $506,000 from her luggage. She was about to board a plane to Dubai when she got arrested.
In November 2015, Ayyan Ali was indicted for attempting to smuggle out more than $500,000 to which she pleaded ‘not guilty’.
Ayyan Ali was also nominated in a case relating to a customs official’s murder, the officer killed in mysterious circumstances in June 2015 while he was reportedly investigating the money laundering case against the model.
Later on 19th January 2017, the apex court in a verdict, allowed the model to travel abroad upholding the earlier verdict of the Sindh High Court, which had ordered the government to remove her name from the Executive Control List (ECL).
Ayyan Ali after spending four months in Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail flew to Dubai after her name was cleared from the Exit Control List on February 23, 2017.