Gulnara Karimova-Maqsudi, Interpol, Divorce
Washington insiders protecting 'Princess of the Uzbeks'?
By Judi McLeod
Thursday, May 31, 2007
The AWOL Gulnara Karimova-Maqsudi seems to take her media-dubbed title as 'Princess of Uzbekistan' to heart.
Flashing her ring and fancy cars in her self-promoting CD is something her subjects can ridicule or ignore. But 35-year-old Gulnara, flamboyant eldest daughter of President Islam Karimova, has been thumbing her nose at the law for years. After fleeing New Jersey with her two children in the summer of 2001, Ms. Princess Karimova remains a high-living fugitive at large.
Like her father Islam, Gulnara is getting a lot of help from American friends. In the case of Gulnara, some say safe haven provided by the influence of a Washington insiders.
President Islam Karimova has been paid tens of million of dollars in aid by the U.S, his appalling record on human rights notwithstanding.
There are some who say that the Bush administration ignores Uzbekistan's human rights atrocities because the former Soviet Republic is Washington's most important strategic partner in Central Asia and because Uzbek military bases have been used to back international efforts in nearby Afghanistan.
Ms. Princess Karimova, who defiantly opted out of U.S. court proceedings, has no intention of complying with the judge's order to return son Islam, now 15 and daughter, Iman, 10 to the U.S.
It was just two days after 9/11 when U.S. Superior Court Judge Deanne M. Wilson ordered the daughter of the president of Uzbekistan to bring her children back to Morris County, N.J. and to do so within 30 days.
Wilson's ruling in favor of the children's father, Mendham Township, New Jersey businessman Mansur Maqsudi, came the month after the end of a 14-day trial on legal jurisdiction over the marital split between the parents and custody of their children.
Leaving behind a note telling her husband to watch the film "War of the Roses", Princess Karimova missed no time in fleeing to the former Soviet state of Uzbekistan with the children on July 29, 2001--a day after her husband asked for a divorce. She has been the subject of an Interpol ever since.
Declaring herself sacrosanct from the laws of the land by virtue of international immunity, Karimov said she already had secured both a divorce and a custody decree in Uzbekistan one year before hubby announced his intentions.
In 2003, Karimov landed a job that came conveniently with diplomatic immunity.
President George W. Bush faces continuing criticism for propping up the regime of a dictator whose brutal dictatorship is distinguished by a particular penchant for boiling captives alive.
According to Harper's, Washington insiders are lending a helping hand to the Princess of the Uzbeks (www.harpers.org/archiv/2007/05hbc900000048).
With an Interpol bounty on her head, Guinara fled from US law while still a client of GlobalOptions, touted as a kind of CIA/FBI of the private investigations field.
In the search for Gulnara Karimova, there's one clue that Interpol couldn't help but notice: Interpol is a GlobalOptions's partner.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has an admirable reputation for having worked tirelessly to reunite some 78,000 missing children with their parents.
Clue number two for Interpol: Former US Senator Dennis DeConcini, on the GlobalOptions board of directors, is chairman of the board at NCMEC.
Tom Foley--the disgraced congressman. whose Foley Amendment was a major crackdown on sex criminals, and not long ago making headlines for exhibiting an alleged fondness for male congressional pages--was also on the NCMEC board
Even in the face of accusations she is a patroness of Uzbek prostitution in the UAE, Karimova, is being groomed to succeed her father as leader of Uzbekistan.
With assets worldwide, including Russia, Switzerland and the Cayman Islands, Gulnara is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, while her father may be worth billions.
In divorce proceedings, the longtime fugitive could keep $4.5 million worth of jewellery, 20 percent of Uzbekistan's Uzdunrobita wireless telephone company, worth $15 million, $11 million in bank and investment holdings in Geneva and Dubai, a house in Tashkent, a $10 million retail complex, a $13 million resort in Uzbekistan and Tashkent nightclubs worth $4 million, and a TV station, recording studio and spa worth $5.5 million. The wireless phone company is a joint venture founded by the state (as a minority shareholder) and an American cellular concern. (Asia Times, July 17, 2005).
Accredited as a counselor at the Uzbek embassy in Moscow, Karimova reportedly purchased 420 square meters of three-level apartments at the "Camelot" deluxe compound in downtown Moscow. The apartments' price is estimated at $1.5-2 million.
For the Princess, life is Camelot everywhere.
For dissidents under the presidency of Islam Karimova, Christians and peaceful Muslims alike, Uzbekistan is hell on earth.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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