ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) served a notice on the Ministry of Interior on a petition filed by a Czech model blaming the government for refusal of permission to return following her acquittal in a drug case.
Tereza Hluskova, 24, who was sentenced in 2019 to eight years in prison on charges of attempting to smuggle heroin from Pakistan to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was released from prison in November weeks after her acquittal.
She was handed over to representatives of the Czech Embassy and headed to Islamabad, according to her attorney, Saif ul-Malook.
On Thursday, Justice Aamer Farooq ordered the ministry to submit a response to Hluskova’s petition within two weeks.
Hluskova was arrested in January 2018 in possession of 8.5 kilograms, or 19 pounds, of heroin at the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore from where she was heading to Ireland via Dubai.
Her sentence also included an $800 fine.
She was acquitted in November by the Lahore High Court (LHC).
At the time of the arrest and during her trial, Hluskova, who had come to Pakistan to work as a model, pleaded she was innocent and that someone else placed the narcotics in her luggage.
