The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday set aside the verdict of the local court and acquitted Czech Model Tereza Hluskova of smuggling charges that were leveled against her in 2019.
A LHC division bench led by Justice Ali Baqir Najfi announced the verdict after hearing arguments of both sides today.
Advocate Saiful Malook appeared as Hluskova’s counsel before the court and argued that she was implicated in the case on false grounds. The counsel told the bench that the legal process was completely ignored when the model was arrested from the airport.
“The trial court also ignored the facts and sentenced Hluskova to eight years imprisonment,” argued the counsel. He said that there were doubts about the samples of the illegal substances that the officials had claimed to have recovered from the model as it was not mentioned anywhere how they shifted the recovered ‘substance’ to the laboratory.
“There might be chances of any change in the substance,” the counsel further argued and pointed out that the suspect should be given the benefit of doubt.
After hearing arguments on both sides, the bench set aside the verdict of the trial court and ordered the relevant authorities to release Hluskova.
On March 19, 2019, a session court sentenced the Czech model to eight-year imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 1,33,000 on her for the attempted smuggling of 8.5 kilograms of heroin from Lahore to Abu Dhabi.
The custom officials arrested Hluskova on Jan 10, 2018, when she was about to leave for Abu Dhabi at Lahore airport. During the trial, the prosecution produced nine witnesses against the suspects.
