In a published statement, the international organizations filed a complaint to the French government concerning the procedure of returning to Uzbekistan $10 million of the illegal assets of Gulnara Karimova, who was sentenced to 13 years for criminal offenses. Human rights activists believe that there are all preconditions for the use of funds in corruption schemes of the Uzbek government.
Transparency International France (TI-F), Sherpa, the Association “Human Rights in Central Asia” (AHRCA), the International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR), the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI), Uzbek Forum on Human Rights (UGF) and the Civil Forum for Asset Recovery (CIFAR) are extremely concerned about the lack of transparency in the French-Uzbek negotiations to return Gulnara Karimova’s illegal assets to Uzbekistan. In addition, the course of the French procedure for controlling the return of assets to Uzbekistan and the lack of transparency in the transfer and monitoring of funds returned to Uzbekistan are of concern.
On May 14, 2020, the Uzbek authorities announced the receipt of $10 million from France from the sale of “illegally acquired” assets of Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the former president of Uzbekistan. This was the decision of the French court of July 9, 2019 on the confiscation of property acquired by Karimova after corruption transactions. The court issued a verdict on the return of funds in compensation to the Republic of Uzbekistan on the basis of a civil lawsuit of this state. Gulnara Karimova is currently serving a sentence in a colony for receiving, in particular, bribes from three communication companies in the amount of over a billion US dollars.
Despite the size of the stolen sums and signs of involvement of senior Uzbek officials in corruption schemes, France didn’t provide any information on the asset recovery process, and the Uzbek authorities only reported that the returned $10 million would be “transferred to the state budget of Uzbekistan”.
“The first return of assets, transferred by France in favor of the affected country, the victim of corruption, could be an opportunity to create a transparent and answerable mechanism for assets returned to Uzbekistan, which would finally benefit the Uzbek people. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen,” the statement said.
In a commentary to ACCA, Nadejda Ataeva, the president of the Association “Human Rights in Central Asia” noted that “due to a lack of transparency and accountability, there is a serious concern that the returned assets may be at risk of misuse with re-laundering. Despite warnings from Uzbek and international non-governmental organizations, leading researchers, who have expressed concern about the lack of real state reforms in Uzbekistan, such an approach to returning corrupt assets to authoritarian regimes can create a dangerous precedent not only for France, but also for other neighboring European countries. And this will affect the asset recovery process, especially in cases where senior officials and family members of the president of Uzbekistan participate.”
The anti-corruption non-governmental organization “Sherpa” (France) has been a civil party in the case of Karimova since 2014. However, its representatives were not able to attend the plea bargaining hearing, as it was temporarily denied the extension of legal accreditation, which is a prerequisite for anti-corruption actors before filing a civil lawsuit in corruption cases.
“When considering the assets recovery, the role of NGOs and an independent civil society is also important in countries that don’t always provide guarantees of exemplary conduct,” says Francelina Lepani, CEO of Sherpa.
President of TI-F, Marc-Andre Feffer, finds the lack of transparency in this process as “destructive and paradoxical”. According to him, “it’s detrimental, because at the moment, there is no guarantee that this money will really be used in the interests of the looted people.”
In the annual Corruption Perception Index for 2019, Uzbekistan ranks 153 out of 180. “Therefore, Uzbek and French civil society organizations insist on the importance of guaranteeing transparency, accountability and good faith in the return of funds in order to avoid reuse them in corruption schemes” declare initiators of the statement.
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