One of Uzbekistan’s opposition groups-in-exile has reported that President Islam Karimov has had a heart attack, prompting a denial from officials, while reigniting speculation about the aging leader’s health.
The People’s Movement of Uzbekistan (PMU), headed by Muhammad Solih from his base in Norway, reported on March 22 that the 75-year-old president suffered a heart attack on March 19. The report cited the PMU’s “own correspondent” in Tashkent, who was not named.
On March 24 the PMU reported confirmation of the news from a second source, a journalist “working for one of the state media outlets, performing his activities directly under the oversight of the National Security Committee and the press service of the president of Uzbekistan.”
The report quoted the unnamed journalist as saying that Karimov had a heart attack on the evening of March 19 and is “now seriously ill.”
No other sources apart from the PMU have independently confirmed the report of Karimov’s alleged heart attack.
A source in the presidential administration denied the news. “The president of Uzbekistan is in excellent form as always and does not have any signs of any indisposition,” the unnamed source told Russian news agency RIA Novosti on March 22.
In a separate report the same day, RIA Novosti quoted a source in the presidential administration (it was not clear if it was the same person) as saying the report was “most likely a canard” and pointing out that Karimov had been seen in public on March 19 at celebrations of the Navruz spring equinox holiday.
A prominent cleric from Uzbekistan is recovering after being shot several times in an apparent assassination attempt in Sweden.
Obid-kori Nazarov was attacked on February 22 by an assailant who lay in wait near his home in the small town of Stromsund, the independent Uznews.net website reported, citing an unnamed associate.
The attacker fled after Nazarov shouted for help. He was taken to a hospital for an operation and there were conflicting reports about his condition, described by Uznews.net as “serious but stable” and by RFE/RL as “critical.”
Nazarov gained popularity as an imam in Uzbekistan in the 1990s, where his fiery sermons led President Islam Karimov’s administration to cast him as an opponent at a time when the main challenge to Karimov’s rule came from clerics with wide public followings.
He still has “tens of thousands of followers and admirers” and “is considered one of the most powerful opponents of the regime,” RFE/RL commented.
The mystery deepens over the case of Gulsumoy Abdujalilova, a young woman that rights activists in Uzbekistan claim committed suicide after being tortured in custody by authorities.
As related by the Human Rights Alliance, a group run from Tashkent by outspoken activist Yelena Urlaeva, the death appeared to underscore the very real danger posed by authoritarian governments trawling social networking sites for signs of dissidence.
But a report in Uzmetronom, a news site also based in Tashkent, casts credible doubts on that account.
Under the initially reported scenario, Abdujalilova returned in November to her native Andijan Province on a visit home from studying abroad in Germany, after which she was picked up the police.
Perplexed by what might have caused security services to single out Abdujalilova, some speculated that she may have come to the attention of authorities through her Facebook account, which identified her as a supporter of the People's Movement of Uzbekistan (PMU). The movement was formed in May from a number of foreign-based Uzbek political and rights organizations and has unambiguously stated its goal as being the downfall of President Islam Karimov's regime.
