Currency smuggling case: Customs court issues non-bailable warrants for Ayyan

RAWALPINDI: The Judge of Special Customs Court, Rawalpindi, Arshad Hussain Bhutta, on Saturday issued non-bailable arrest warrants against model Ayyan Ali in currency smuggling case.

The model was absconding from the trial in the currency smuggling case after fleeing abroad under false pretenses. She did not appear in the court in 50 proceedings. The court ordered the Customs officials to arrest the accused and present her in court by October 22 at all costs.

In 2015, Ayyan Ali was arrested at the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Airport while boarding a flight to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with $506,800 without the permission of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). She was sent to jail and the government put her name on the Exit Control List (ECL). But she subsequently left for Dubai after she was released on bail and a court ordered the removal of her name from the ECL.

Customs prosecutor Amin Feroz noted that Ayyan Ali did not appear in the court since December 8, 2015.

The Special Customs Court judge also rejected an appeal filed by the defendant’s counsel to adjourn the case. During the hearing, the model's lawyer Sardar Latif Khosa was not present in court. Instead, a junior lawyer Syed Iqbal Hussain was sent. The junior lawyer said that Ayyan is unwell because of which she could not be present in the court and requested that she be granted temporary leave of absence. However, the court was incensed by continuing excuses.

The court asked the lawyer whether he had any new medical certificate to show for his client, warning that exemptions on attendance could not be granted at every hearing to Ayyan on the basis of old medical reports. The customs prosecutor opposed giving the model any exemptions on appearing before the court and noted that new excuses are made in every hearing.

The model was granted bail in July 2016 after spending around four months in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail and after her judicial remand was extended at least 16 times.