Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of the late Uzbek president last seen in public several years ago, has been sent to prison to serve the remainder of a five-year sentence after violating the terms of her house arrest, the Uzbekistan prosecutor’s office said.
Karimova, 46, was a high-profile businesswoman, diplomat, fashion designer, and pop singer who vanished from public view in 2014 after a reported dispute with her father, Islam Karimov, who ruled Uzbekistan for 27 years until his death in 2016.
#Karimova (1/3) Today, at around 2 p.m., Gulnara Karimova was forcibly removed from the apartment in which she was held in Tashkent. @bbcuzbek @ReutersUK pic.twitter.com/nay0xjRA1W
— Grégoire Mangeat (@GregoireMangeat) March 5, 2019
Uzbek authorities said in 2017 that Karimova, who was once considered a possible heir to the presidency, had been convicted on embezzlement and money-laundering charges, but it remained unclear when she had been tried and where she was serving her sentence. There was widespread speculation that she was dead.
Karimova’s daughter, Iman, said police officers dragged her mother from her apartment in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, on Tuesday afternoon. She posted a blurry photograph on Instagram that showed a woman in a blue robe and pink slippers struggling in a doorway with two men dressed in dark clothes.
In 2010, a leaked American embassy cable described Karimova as a “robber baron” who considered herself above the law.
