Court rejects FBR's appeal for fresh investigations in Ayyan money laundering case

The department had asked the court to start a fresh probe in the money laundering case

RAWALPINDI: A special Customs, Excise and Taxation court on Wednesday dismissed a Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) application seeking permission to initiate a fresh investigation in model Ayyan Ali’s money laundering case.

Judge Rana Aftab Ahmed Khan reserved his judgement on the FBR’s plea on March 24 after both sides presented their arguments.

In the application, filed through prosecutor Muhammad Amin Feroz, the FBR had maintained that the department wanted to initiate a fresh investigation against Ali under charges of money laundering. Earlier, the department had held investigations against the model on charges of currency smuggling.

Opposing the FBR’s plea, Advocate Khurram Latif Khosa, representing Ali, said that the department had no authority to investigate the model for money laundering.

A judge of Customs, Taxation and Anti-Smuggling Court on Thursday reserved verdict till March 30 on the application of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), seeking to initiate fresh investigation against Ali on charges of money laundering.

The defence lawyer had argued that the interior minister amended the money laundering laws through an office order on April 1, 2015. The lawyer argued that the ministry specifically amended the law to investigate Ali.

The defence lawyer had maintained that the Pakistan Customs booked Ali on March 14, 2015 on charges of currency smuggling and at that time no amendment was made in the law. The FBR approached the court for permission to investigate Ali under charges of money laundering after the law was amended, the lawyer noted.

“If any crime took place before the amendment, the accused cannot be tried or grilled under the amended law,” the defence lawyer argued.

Ali’s lawyer had said that the investigators of Pakistan Customs questioned Ali under charges of currency smuggling and even included the same in the final investigation report submitted before the trial court that the money taken into custody belonged to Ali.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st,  2016.