ISLAMABAD, March 20 (Xinhua) -- A court in Pakistan's Lahore has sentenced a Czech model for eight years and eight months in jail for attempting to smuggle drugs, local media reported Wednesday.

Authorities at Lahore airport arrested the model in last January after recovering some nine kg of heroine from her luggage. The authorities said that Tereza Hluskova was attempting to smuggle the narcotics to Ireland.

Television footage showed that the model broke down in court after hearing the verdict of her case. She was shifted to a woman jail by the police.

After the model's arrest last year, her facilitator was also arrested who said that Hluskova teamed up with her brother's friend to smuggle drugs from Pakistan to foreign countries various times before getting caught by the airport authorities.

The model, however, ruled out the accusations, saying in her defense that she was visiting Lahore for some modeling assignments and was unaware that someone put the drugs in her bag.