Court releases detailed verdict in narcotics smuggling case

LAHORE: A Lahore court on Thursday released detail verdict against Czech Republic model Tereza Hluskova in narcotics smuggling case, ARY News reported.

The 34-page verdict stated that Tereza Hluskova has not been pronounced with rigorous imprisonment for being a woman, whereas, she was awarded eight years and eight months imprisonment and Rs113,333 fine.

It was stated that the accused failed to provide evidence for her innocence over the recovery of 8.5-kilogram heroin from her possession. Customs officials had produced nine witnesses against Hluskova in the case.

The accused lady had arrived in Pakistan for research and modelling but provided no solid evidence regarding her aims for appearing in the country. No records were presented to the court despite she wrote two books while being jailed, the verdict said.

Hluskova had stated the bag [consisting narcotics] did not belong to her but she doesn’t say where her bag was.

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On March 20, An additional district and sessions court on Wednesday awarded punishment to Czech Republic model Tereza Hluskova, who was arrested in a bid to smuggle heroin from Lahore to Dubai, last year.

The court had reserved the verdict into the case on March 12.

Additional district and sessions judge Shehzad Raza in his verdict, awarded eight years and 8 months imprisonment to Tereza and also fined her for Rs 1, 13000, while her companion, Shoaib was freed over lack of evidence.

During the pronouncement of the decision in the case, the deputy secretary of the Czech Republic Consulate was also in attendance in the court.

Hluskova was taken into custody on January 10, 2018, following her attempt to smuggle heroin from Lahore to Abu Dhabi – while on a three-month family visit visa to Pakistan.

The 21-year-old professional model from the Czech Republic was arrested at Allama Iqbal International Airport.