On February 11, 2022, the delegations of Switzerland and Uzbekistan, after a round of negotiations, agreed in principle to establish a new United Nations Multi-Partner Trust Fund.
From the message of the representative of the Ministry of Justice of Uzbekistan, it follows that the Fund will be replenished with assets finally confiscated as part of the criminal proceedings against Gulnara Karimova. It will also serve as a mechanism for the restitution of any additional assets that may be permanently confiscated in the future as part of the still ongoing criminal proceedings in Switzerland.
Currently, about 131 million US dollars are ready to be returned. The other day, 10 million US dollars were returned to Uzbekistan from France. The same amount was transferred to the country in May 2021.
The resources of the Fund are expected to be allocated to projects in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Uzbekistan (UNSDCF). These projects will be implemented by the UN system organizations participating in the Fund in collaboration with various implementing partners.
All projects will be monitored in accordance with the Fund’s monitoring and evaluation system based on the rules and regulations of the UN system. The press release emphasizes that civil society organizations will play an advisory role.
“If these are pro-government public organizations, then they will not be able, and will not want to monitor transparency in the spending of funds,” the ACCA expert notes.
Now imprisoned Karimova is serving her sentence in a women’s colony. On March 18, 2020, the court found her guilty of conspiracy, extortion, embezzlement and robbery, money laundering and other crimes. Her verdict is 13 years and 4 months in prison.
Earlier, Nadejda Atayeva, President of the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (France), noted that in the absence of transparency and accountability, there is serious concern that the returned assets may be at risk of misappropriation and re-laundering. Such return conditions would set a dangerous precedent for the return of corrupt assets to authoritarian regimes, not only by France but also by other neighboring European countries. This is despite warnings from a number of Uzbek and international non-governmental organizations and leading academics expressing concern about the lack of credible governance reform in Uzbekistan and its potential impact on responsible asset recovery, with particular questions raised regarding high-ranking officials and family members of the President of Uzbekistan.
Gulnara’s son and grandson of the country’s first President, Islam Karimov, considers his mother’s sentence politically motivated. He is sure that the current Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov has left a fair trial. One in the past, the official signed the documents related to bribes from telecommunications companies to Gulnara Karimova.
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