TASHKENT (TCA) — The younger daughter of late Uzbek President Islam Karimov says she is leaving her post as president of Uzbekistan’s Gymnastics Federation, weeks after she resigned from the post of the country’s ambassador to UNESCO, RFE/RL reported.
“I am leaving the post of the president of Uzbekistan’s Gymnastics Federation after 13 years of service,” Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva wrote on her social-media accounts on March 5, adding that she will continue her tenure as president of the Asian Gymnastics Union.
Karimova-Tillyaeva, 39, in February said that she was leaving her post as Uzbekistan’s ambassador to UNESCO, the UN Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, because she planned to focus on her family and “programs implemented by the Islam Karimov Foundation.”
“Today is my last working day as an ambassador of Uzbekistan to UNESCO,” Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva wrote on her social-media accounts on February 2, adding that she will continue working on “projects in the field of culture, education, science, and the environment.”
Karimova-Tillyaeva then added that she will also “continue humanitarian work” to help children with disabilities through a children’s charity organization she founded in 2002.
Karimov ruled the Central Asian nation for 27 years, ruthlessly cracking down on dissent. His death was announced on September 2, 2016.
His eldest daughter, Gulnara Karimova, 45, who once was a high-profile socialite, pop singer, fashion designer, and diplomat, is in state custody.
Uzbek authorities said last year that Gulnara Karimova had been sentenced to five years of “restricted freedom” in 2015 after being convicted of crimes including extortion, embezzlement, and tax evasion.
