RAWALPINDI, Pakistan: A Customs Court in Rawalpindi on Monday rejected a bail plea filed by Pakistani supermodel and actress Ayyan Ali who is currently in police custody on charges of money laundering.
The 21-year-old Ayyan was arrested on Saturday morning at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport in Rawalpindi for attempting to carry US $500,000 abroad. Later, she was charged with money laundering, and sent to Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail for a 14-day judicial remand.
During a hearing of a bail plea filed by the actress at a Customs Court in Rawalpindi, she told the Judge Mumtaz Hassan Chaudhry that she acquired the money by selling a property to Former Interior Minister and Senator Rehman Malik’s brother, Khalid Malik.
The supermodel apologized, and asserted that she had no knowledge of the law that bars citizens from carrying an undeclared amount exceeding $10,000 to a foreign country.
However, the court rejected her plea for bail but accepted another plea submitted by the Customs officer Inspector Saleem, seeking a court permission for a detailed investigation into where the money came from and why it was being taken out of the country in greater detail.
