Dubai: Pakistan’s supermodel, Ayyan Ali, has been declared proclaimed offender by special court of customs, excise and taxation in a currency smuggling case on Saturday.
The court issued orders after Ali failed to surrender and appear before the court and her transferable and non-transferable assets were also attached.
According to reports in Dawn, Ali’s lawyer sought more time for his client to surrender before the court but Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta turned down the request. The court also gave orders to confiscate the Rs550,000 surety bonds of her two guarantors Shaukat and Nawaz. The case has been adjourned till March 18.
The Rs550,000 bonds were deposited as post-arrest bail when Ali was released from jail in July 2015. The supermodel was arrested on March 14, 2015, for allegedly attempting to smuggle $506,800 in cash to the UAE by the Airports Security Force personnel at Benazir Bhutto International Airport in Islamabad.
Ali’s arrest and her subsequent four-month prison term in Adiala jail had created an uproar. Her name was linked to high-profile politicians and it was alleged that she was a conduit for their money laundering operations.
She also been linked in the alleged murder of a customs official as an arrest warrant was issued in her name by a magistrate in Rawalpindi. But the apex court on July 22, 2016 suspended the warrant.
