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Pakistani court sentences Czech model to 8 years in jail for smuggling narcotics

20 Mar 2019

Czech model Tereza Hluskova weeps after the court decision to sentence her to eight years in prison for attempted heroin smuggling, in Lahore on Wednesday. Arif Ali / AFP

Tariq Butt / Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: A Lahore court on Wednesday sentenced to eight years and eight months in jail a Czech woman arrested last year on charges of attempting to smuggle heroin from Pakistan to a foreign country.

The co-accused in the case, Shoaib Hafeez Khan, was acquitted due to reasonable doubt surrounding his role in the smuggling bid.

The trial in the case had been completed on January 9 and the Additional Sessions Judge Shahzad Raza issued the verdict against 21-year-old Tereza Hluskova on Wednesday.

Since her arrest on January 10, 2018 Hluskova has told investigators that she came to Pakistan to work as a model, but someone put eight and a half kilogrammes of narcotics into her luggage as she was returning. She was arrested as she tried to board a flight for abroad. Czech diplomats had provided her legal assistance.

Pakistani authorities often make arrests of both Pakistanis and foreigners for transporting narcotics.

Over the course of her trial, nine witnesses recorded their statements against the accused.

Earlier this year, in January, a foreign PhD student was taken into custody by customs staff after narcotics were found in his luggage during check-in at the new Islamabad International Airport.

Customs staff recovered 325 grammes of cocaine disguised as sweets and arrested the student Ifenaye Junior Aloja, who is a PhD student in a private university of Islamabad. He was moved to Customs Headquarters for legal proceedings.