Uzbekistan, Tashkent – AN Podrobno.uz. The Swiss trial involving Gulnara Karimova, which has been ongoing for nearly 14 years, has moved into the phase of public hearings. Today, April 27, the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona begins proceedings that are the culmination of years of investigations into the activities of a criminal network referred to in case materials as the 'Office' (or 'Directorate').
According to the Swiss prosecutor's office, it was through this structure that Karimova allegedly extorted bribes from international telecommunications companies seeking to enter the Uzbek market. However, the scope of the case extends far beyond personal accusations: alongside the daughter of the first president, a former employee of the Geneva bank Lombard Odier is set to appear before the court. He is accused of facilitating the opening of accounts and concealing the true origin of the 'Office's' funds between 2008 and 2012.
This financial chain has led to the bank itself being named as a corporate defendant. The court must apply the concept of corporate criminal liability to assess how effectively the organization supervised its employee and whether gaps in the bank's security system indirectly contributed to the laundering of corrupt proceeds.
This process is already unique for the Swiss justice system. For the first time in history, Federal Court judges traveled abroad to conduct hearings. In early 2026, a second interrogation of Gulnara Karimova took place in Tashkent, where she has been imprisoned since 2014. However, the conditions of these interrogations are disputed by lawyers. Questions could only be asked through the General Prosecutor's Office of Uzbekistan, and direct clarifications by Swiss judges were prohibited. The court now faces a complex dilemma: whether the testimony obtained in this manner meets strict Swiss standards and can be considered admissible evidence.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that the personal presence of key figures in the courtroom is virtually impossible. The 53-year-old Karimova is serving her sentence in Uzbekistan, and the whereabouts of her business partner have not been officially established. This presents the judges in Bellinzona with a fundamental choice: conduct the trial in absentia or once again separate the case materials.
The fact that the parties have not reached a pretrial agreement in 14 years brings this process into the realm of public hearings. The upcoming sessions are expected not only to clarify the fate of frozen assets but also to provide a final legal assessment of the investigation methods, which were conducted under exceptional conditions for international jurisprudence.
This Swiss trial unfolds against the backdrop of a long and complex chronology of Karimova's imprisonment in Uzbekistan. She has effectively been in isolation for 12 years, starting in 2014 when she was first placed under house arrest in Tashkent. During this time, she has gone through several judicial stages: after the first sentence in 2015 to 5 years of restricted freedom, 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 result was a 2020 verdict, when the court finally sentenced her to 13 years and 4 months in prison on charges of creating a criminal organization, corruption, and embezzlement.
Despite periodic rumors of her early release, as of April 2026, Karimova continues to serve her sentence. In early 2025, she was transferred from a women's prison to a settlement colony located in the same Zangiata district.
Source: podrobno.uz