Sawt Falasteen - Swiss court dismisses corruption case against late Uzbek leader's daughter

The trial of Karimova and a Swiss private bank opened on Monday but Karimova was not present as she is serving a 13-year sentence in Uzbekistan for embezzlement.

A spokeswoman for the court in Bellinzona told AFP the proceedings against Karimova were dismissed due to what she called a "persistent impediment".

Karimova, whose father Islam Karimov ruled Uzbekistan for 25 years until his death in 2016, was indicted by Switzerland in 2023 in a vast case involving alleged corruption, fraud and organised crime stretching over many years.

The full decision to dismiss the case will be published along with the final judgement, the spokeswoman said.

"The judgement will address the potential confiscation of the seized assets and valuables held by Ms Karimova," she added.

Swiss domestic news agency Keystone-ATS, in Bellinzona, said the court justified the dismissal by saying Karimova would not be able to leave Uzbekistan before the statute of limitations on the Swiss charges expires in 2028, with Tashkent refusing to allow her to leave before the end of her sentence.

This non-culpable absence from her trial therefore constituted an impediment to the proceedings and the case against Karimova was dismissed, it said.

- Bank refutes allegations -

The dismissal "is equivalent to an acquittal under Swiss law", her lawyers, Gregoire Mangeat, Fanny Margairaz, and Romain Wavre, told AFP in a statement.

This "very clearly shows that in Switzerland, a person who has been arbitrarily held in a detention for more than 10 years cannot be tried", they said.

They also claimed it proved that someone "subjected to sham trials... cannot be tried in absentia" and someone "cannot be tried when their most basic rights to a defence are blatantly violated by a state --Uzbekistan -- that scoffs at the rule of law".

The Swiss charges covered the period from 2005 to 2012 and revolved around "participation in a criminal organisation", "money laundering", "acceptance of bribes as foreign public officials" and "forgery of documents".

The Swiss attorney general's office (OAG) first opened an investigation in 2012, although Karimova herself initially enjoyed diplomatic immunity, since she was serving as Uzbekistan's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.

After that immunity was lifted in 2013, the investigation expanded to focus on her.

The OAG said its investigation led it to conclude that some of the funds laundered in Switzerland were allegedly deposited into accounts at the Lombard Odier bank in Geneva.

Proceedings against the bank and a former employee are still going ahead, the federal court spokeswoman said.

In a statement Monday, the bank said the charges "pertain to alleged organisational shortcomings in relation to the effective prevention of money laundering.

"The bank firmly refutes these allegations and intends to defend itself at trial."

After Tuesday's dismissal of the case against Karimova, the bank told AFP: "After nearly 15 years of investigation, this decision highlights the fundamental difficulties of the current proceedings -- with regard to all the defendants."

R.Halabi--SF-PST