The Federal Criminal Court of Switzerland in Bellinzona has decided to discontinue proceedings in the corruption and money laundering case against Gulnara Karimova. The nearly 14-year-long investigation concluded due to the expiration of the statute of limitations and the impossibility of the defendant's personal participation in the trial.

The presiding judge noted that Karimova, who has been imprisoned in Uzbekistan since 2014, is not allowed to leave the country. Earlier, the republic's authorities rejected her request to travel to Switzerland for the hearings. Additionally, the court considered that her current sentence in Uzbekistan already exceeds any possible punishment the Swiss tribunal could have imposed.

The investigation accused Karimova of leading a criminal network called "Office," through which corrupt payments from international telecommunications giants allegedly flowed. The case also involved a former employee of Lombard Odier bank and the financial institution itself as a corporate defendant.

Despite the case being closed in Switzerland, Karimova continues to serve her sentence in her home country. She has effectively been in isolation for 12 years, since 2014 when she was first placed under house arrest in Tashkent. During this time, she has gone through several judicial stages: after an initial sentence of 5 years of restricted freedom in 2015, new cases were opened, and in March 2019, due to violations of the regime, she was transferred from house arrest to colony No. 21 in the Zangiata district. The final verdict came in 2020, when the court sentenced her to 13 years and 4 months in prison for creating a criminal organization, corruption, and embezzlement.

In early 2025, she was transferred from a women's prison to a settlement colony located in the same Zangiata district.

Source: podrobno.uz