Wall Street Journal: Gulnara Karimova Questioned By Swiss Prosecutors

Gulnara Karimova in a 2010 photo

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that Gulnara Karimova, the elder daughter of the late Uzbek President Islam Karimov, was questioned by Swiss prosecutors in December over money-laundering accusations.

The WSJ quoted a Geneva-based lawyer for Karimova, Gregoire Mangeat, as saying that two Swiss prosecutors were allowed to question Karimova for a total of 23 hours on December 9-10 in Uzbekistan's capital, Tashkent.

Karimova, once seen as a possible successor to her father, has been tied to ongoing money-laundering investigations in Sweden and Switzerland and is at the center of a financial-crimes probe in Uzbekistan in which many of her associates have been jailed.

She has been under house arrest in Tashkent since 2014.

The January 15 WSJ report was among the most tangible information on Karimova’s situation since her disappearance from public.

According to Mangeat, Karimova is "in relative good health but her security is not at all guaranteed."

Neither Karimova nor her children were present at her father's funeral on September 3, 2016.

Based on reporting by The Wall Street Journal