Model jailed over Irish heroin plot
A MODEL cried as she was sentenced to eight years in prison in Pakistan for trying to smuggle €1.2million of heroin into Ireland.
Tereza Hluskova wept after she was handed the sentence yesterday in the eastern city of Lahore, the capital of Punjab province.
The court said the 22-year-old Czech model was arrested in possession of 8.5kg of heroin in January 2018 at Lahore airport.
From there, she was heading to Ireland via Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, the court said.
Since her arrest, Hluskova has told investigators that she came to Pakistan to work as a model but that someone put narcotics into her luggage.
Her lawyer, Sardar Asghar Dogar, says she will appeal. Hluskova was convicted during a court appearance last week. Her sentence also includes a fine of around €700.
Previous reports said Hluskova was stopped with the drugs stashed in statues in her luggage.
The story gained attention when the model was captured smiling and posing for photos with Pakistani investigators after she was arrested at the airport.
She has previously said she was in Pakistan for a modelling contract and told authorities she did not know how the heroin ended up in her suitcase.
Two other men were also arrested and were due to face drug trafficking charges after police went through the model’s phone.
In a video, released online, a Pakistani customs official is shown ‘discovering’ the drugs hidden in the suitcase while Hluskova looks on. She then puts her head in her hands. She says in the video: ‘They gave me something for luggage, three statues or something. They said it was gifts. I didn’t know there was something inside.’
In November last year, a man was jailed for three years after he threatened terrorist attacks on Pakistan if Hluskova was not released.
Nikolai Simeonov Ivanov, 21, from Bulgaria, sent threatening emails and text messages to a news website in Pakistan.