LAHORE, PAKISTAN – A Czech model sentenced to eight years in prison in 2019 for trying to smuggle heroin from Pakistan to the United Arab Emirates was released on Saturday after she was acquitted on Wednesday. earlier this month, her attorney said.
Late in the evening, Tereza Hluskova left prison in the eastern city of Lahore, where she was assigned to representatives of the Czech Embassy, and arrived in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, according to her lawyer, Saiful Malook.
Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek tweeted about the release, saying that the embassy in Islamabad would help arrange her trip back to the Czech Republic.
The 24-year-old was arrested in January 2018 for possession of 8.5 kilograms, or 19 pounds, of heroin at Lahore airport, where she arrived in Ireland via Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Her sentence also included a $800 fine.
She was acquitted by an appeals court in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, in early November.
At the time of her arrest and during her trial, Hluskova, who had traveled to Pakistan to model, defended her innocence and that another person had put drugs in her luggage.
Authorities in Pakistan regularly arrest both Pakistanis and foreigners for drug trafficking.
.
