Ayyan’s acquittal plea: Verdict expected today

RAWALPINDI:

A Customs court in Rawalpindi will announce the verdict on model Ayyan Ali’s acquittal plea in the money laundering case on Wednesday (today).

The model appeared before the court on Tuesday with defence counsel Sardar Latif Khosa, who maintained that her client was innocent. Khosa said Ayyan was arrested from the Islamabad airport lounge before even approaching the Customs counter. He said charge of a crime which has not been committed yet was not maintainable.

Khosa said the charge-sheet would waste the court’s time as the prosecution has no evidence in the case.

However, customs’ legal advisers Farhat Nawaz Lodhi and Muhammad Amin Feroz said the suspect was caught red-handed with $508,600 in cash. They said the suspect carried a confirmed ticket and a valid visa for Dubai and she was arrested at a time when boarding had started. They maintained that attempt to smuggle amounted smuggling and was a crime.

They said the prosecution had eye-witnesses and documentary proofs against the model, and requested the court to quash her acquittal plea and charge her with the crime.

The court will announce the decision on Ayyan’s acquittal plea today, and will also decide whether and when to present the charge-sheet against the suspect.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2015.