Two officials in Uzbekistan say dozens of managers at industrial facilities who are allegedly associated with President Islam Karimov's embattled daughter, Gulnara Karimova, have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
A Ferghana region official who did want to be named told RFE/RL on January 12 that as many as 60 directors, deputies, bookkeepers, and other employees of three enterprises in the region had been convicted and sentenced on financial fraud and embezzlement charges in recent days.
The official said the court found that the defendants were members of a criminal group led by Gulnara Karimova.
The official's account was confirmed by an unidentified Ferghana Regional Court official cited by Russian news agency RIA Novosti on January 13.
Uzbek authorities said in September that Karimova, 42, who was once seen as a possible successor to her 76-year-old father, was under house arrest on corruption charges.
In July, several suspected associates of Karimova were handed prison terms after being found guilty of financial crimes.
Karimov's government tolerates little dissent and has been accused of frequent human rights abuses against its citizens in the tightly controlled nation.
