The Customs Appellate Tribunal has rejected model Ayyan Ali’s appeal against the custom collector’s decision in the currency smuggling case.
According to Customs Appellate Tribunal Chairperson Manzoor, a fine of Rs 50 million will remain imposed on the model. Moreover, the decision of seizing currency found in Ayan’s possession will also remain intact.
The decision was reserved on April 4, 2018.
Ayan was arrested on March 14, 2015 from the Islamabad airport on charges of money laundering after Customs officials recovered $506,000 from her luggage while she was heading to Dubai.
A Customs court indicted Ayan 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 under 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 court struck down the ban and allowed Ayyan to travel abroad.
Published in Daily Times, June 6th 2018.
