Gulnara Karimova sent to prison - Prosecutor General’s office

In accordance with a verdict of the Tashkent region criminal court proceedings of December 18, 2017, Gulnara Karimova, born in 1972, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.  

As the Prosecutor-General's Office reports, on July 1, 2018, the sentence imposed on G. Karimova has been replaced with a 5-year freedom restriction from the humanitarian point of view, as well as taking into account the fact that the convict committed to repay the funds earned through criminal proceedings and to compensate for the damage to the state. As the place of serving a sentence of restraint, according to the choice of G. Karimova, her daughter Imon Karimova's place of residence was determined. 

At the same time, the prisoner G. Karimova was obliged to comply with a number of restrictions envisaged by law, including the obligation to compensate the damage, not to leave the place of residence, not use communication facilities and the Internet.

The convict G. Karimova was explained that if she did not comply with the obligations imposed on her by the court, the remaining term of the penalty could be replaced with other punishment.

However, the prisoner G. Karimova did not fulfill the obligations imposed on her by systematically breaking the restrictions set by the court, the report reads.

In particular, the detainee G. Karimova disobediently left the place of residence on November 22, 2018 and was warned not to violate the terms and conditions of serving the sentence.

In spite of the warning, G. Karimova continued to deliberately violate the rules and conditions of serving the sentence, specifically:

She regularly used communication facilities, including the Internet;

She actively resisted reimbursing the damage caused by her.

As G. Karimova intentionally violated the order and terms of serving the penalty, in accordance with the criminal-executive legislation, based on the proposal of the Probation Service under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan, on March 5, 2019, it was determined by the Yashnabod district criminal court that the remaining sentence term imposed on her was replaced by a prison sentence in a colony of general regime.

Karimova’s Swiss lawyer Gregoire Mangeat wrote on Twitter that she was “forcibly removed” from the apartment where she lived in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent on Tuesday. The authorities said she was taken to a prison.

“She was taken to an unknown place,” Mangeat wrote. “The Uzbek authorities continue to exert psychological and physical pressure on her to force her to withdraw her appeals and abandon all her rights and property in Switzerland.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Gulnara Karimova's daughter Iman Karimova published information about abduction of her mother. She wrote on her Instagram page that her mother had been abducted from her own apartment.
 
According to Iman Karimova, employees of the prosecutor's office in Tashkent broke into their apartment. At first, law enforcement officers threatened, and then took Gulnara Karimova to an unknown destination.
 
“At the moment, no one knows where she is and what's wrong with her, but lawyers and prosecutors in Switzerland are already aware of the case and take measures,” Iman Karimova said in her post.