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Uzbekistan|politics|January 16, 2017 / 02:40 PM
Gulnara Karimova reportedly questioned by Swiss prosecutors

AKIPRESS.COM - KarimovaThe elder daughter of Uzbekistan’s late President Islam Karimov was questioned recently over money-laundering accusations by Swiss prosecutors while under house arrest in Tashkent, according to a lawyer who attended the meetings, reports Wall Street Journal.

The account provides the first tangible information on Gulnara Karimova’s situation since the once globe-trotting popstar and businesswoman disappeared from public sight nearly three years ago.

The fate of Ms. Karimova, who Swiss prosecutors have named as a suspect in a criminal corruption probe and who U.S. prosecutors believe was the beneficial owner of a hefty bribery payment, has been shrouded in mystery since she was detained in her country in February 2014.

At the time, Uzbek prosecutors mentioned her name on a list of people suspected of misappropriating $200 million. But detailed charges weren’t disclosed and no public trial was held.

More questions arose about her whereabouts and condition in September, when she didn’t attend the funeral of her father, who ruled the former Soviet republic for a quarter-century.

On Dec. 9 and 10, however, two Swiss prosecutors were allowed to meet with Ms. Karimova for a combined 23-hour interrogation in the Uzbek capital, according to Grégoire Mangeat, a court-appointed lawyer and chairman of the Geneva Bar who is representing her in the Swiss probe. The lawyer said he was given the opportunity to speak with her alone twice ahead of the hearing.

“She was in relative good health but her security is not at all guaranteed,” Mr. Mangeat said. “She is confined to a small annex at her former house in the center of Tashkent. She’s banned from communicating with the outside world, be it her children or her own lawyers.”

A spokeswoman for Swiss prosecutors in Bern confirmed that officials from the Office of the Attorney General had been to Uzbekistan. She declined to comment further on the investigation. Uzbek officials couldn’t be reached over the weekend.

Regarding the accusations leveled against his client—prosecutors suspect 800 million Swiss francs ($793 million) seized in Switzerland are the spoils of Ms. Karimova’s alleged corrupt practices with global telecoms companies—the lawyer said Ms. Karimova would respond once she has had a chance to examine court documents. The probe has sprawling ramifications, including in the Netherlands, Sweden and France. “But the conditions under which she is held, make it extremely hard, even impossible, for her to defend herself,” Mr. Mangeat said.

The decision to make Ms. Karimova available for questioning by Swiss magistrates marks a shift by Uzbek authorities who, under Mr. Karimov, had stonewalled queries for judicial cooperation, according to officials in Switzerland, Sweden and France. Analysts said it could indicate a desire by Uzbekistan’s new president, Shavkat Mirziyoev, to draw a line under a protracted corruption scandal that has tarnished the image of the landlocked country.

The Swiss lawyer said he had little faith in the Uzbek judicial system but noted Ms. Karimova wished the new president would intervene to help forge a global and peaceful resolution of the matter. The office of Mr. Mirziyoev didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.​

Mr. Mangeat said Ms. Karimova told him that she was never prosecuted in accordance with any formal procedure in Uzbekistan.

Still, she told him how an Uzbek prosecutor came to her place on a morning of August 2015. He was accompanied by two people who introduced themselves as court judges. Sitting around the kitchen table, they read what they told her amounted to a court ruling.

She told the lawyer that the encounter was recorded on camera. The lawyer said he would seek to have a copy of the recording of what he called a mock trial added to the Swiss procedure. He said Ms. Karimova appeared courageous and combative during the December hearings, but burst into tears when the situation of her children—her daughter was allowed to visit her a few times under strict control—was mentioned.

All her Uzbek assets, real estate and interests in numerous companies were confiscated outside of any normal judicial procedure, the lawyer cited her as saying.

Ms. Karimova was once a highflying member of the Karimov family. The Harvard-educated businesswoman served as an ambassador to Spain and cast herself as an entrepreneur, philanthropist and fashionista. She aspired to pop stardom, filming a music video that featured a cameo from French actor Gérard Depardieu.

Bribery accusations surfaced in 2012, when Swiss authorities detained associates of Ms. Karimova. She was formally added to the list of suspects a few months later, after losing a diplomatic immunity cover provided by her title as permanent representative of Uzbekistan to the United Nations.

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