Uzbekistan and Switzerland on 6 February signed a new agreement on the return of confiscated assets of Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the first president of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov.
The agreement was signed in Tashkent by Uzbekistan’s Minister of Justice Akbar Tashkulov and Swiss ambassador to Uzbekistan Konstantin Obolensky, press service of the ministry said.
Under the agreement, approximately $182 million will be returned to Uzbekistan. “These funds were unlawfully acquired by certain citizens of Uzbekistan and fully confiscated by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Switzerland in 2012 as part of a criminal case against Karimova,” the statement said.
The funds will be transferred through the UN’s Multi-Partner Trust Fund, Uzbekistan Vision 2030.
On 16 August 2022, an agreement was signed in Bern between the two countries on the return of confiscated assets in the interests of Uzbekistan’s population. The agreement envisaged the return of $131 million to Uzbekistan. With the signing of the new document, the total amount of returned funds will reach $313 million.
The funds returned through the Uzbekistan Vision 2030 fund will be allocated to socially significant projects for the benefit of the population, particularly in healthcare and education. In September 2023, the fund allocated $43.5 million to finance a new UN program aimed at reducing preventable maternal and newborn children mortality in Uzbekistan. The information about the fund and its projects is available on the website ishonch.org.
The total amount of assets linked to Gulnara Karimova and the criminal group she led, located in France, the US, Latvia and other countries, is estimated at nearly $1.4 billion. In 2022, deputy minister of justice Muzraf Ikramov said this amount could be used to build 1,400 schools.
In 2015, Gulnara Karimova was sentenced to 5 years of restricted freedom and in 2019 was transferred to a penal colony for violation of restriction rules. In March 2020, she was sentenced to an additional 13 years and 4 months “for embezzlement of state funds, making deals against Uzbekistan’s interests and large-scale extortion”.
