Gulnara Karimova Sentenced Again For Corruption, Financial Crimes

Gulnara Karimova, the imprisoned elder daughter of the late Uzbek President Islam Karimov, has received an additional 13 years and four months in prison in the latest court ruling against her and her former associates.

Uzbekistan’s Supreme Court said on March 18 that Karimova was found guilty of extortion, money laundering, misappropriating the property of others, and financial and other crimes, and sentenced the same day along with five other defendants.

Karimova, who has been jailed in Tashkent since March 2019, went on trial for the charges on January 8.

Last month she sent a letter to President Shavkat Mirziyoev offering to return $686 million to the country’s treasury in exchange for the dismissal of the court case.

The Uzbek Prosecutor-General’s Office said in August that the new case against Karimova was linked to allegations that she illegally bought state-owned shares of two cement plants that she later sold to foreign businessmen.

The 47-year-old Karimova, once seen as a possible successor to her father, has been also tied to money-laundering investigations in Sweden and Switzerland.

She was placed under house arrest in Tashkent in 2014 when her father was still alive and ran the country. Karimov died in 2016 and Mirziyoev became his successor soon afterward.

In December 2017, Karimova was sentenced to a 10-year prison term but several months later the sentence was reclassified to house arrest and shortened to five years.

In March 2019, she was placed in jail for allegedly violating the terms of her house arrest.

Also in March 2019, the U.S. Justice Department named Karimova as part of a major international bribery scheme, charging her with conspiracy to violate U.S. foreign corruption laws.