TASHKENT, NOV. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — If there is a shadow hanging over the presidential election in Uzbekistan and the apparent smooth handover of power to Shavkat Mirziyoyev coupled with warmer neighbourly relations, it is the figure of Gulnara Karimova.

Very little has been heard of Uzbekistan’s self-styled diva since she was placed under house arrest in Tashkent in March 2014. She had been the preferred successor of her father, Islam Karimov, but fell from grace after police forces in Europe started investigating her financial affairs. It emerged she had been taking bribes worth hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign telecoms firms.

Unlike her sister and mother, who have been pictured mourning and have set up an institute in Karimov’s name, Ms Karimova has hardly been mentioned in news coverage since her father’s death on Sept. 2.

That is until a Russian language website which specialises on reporting on Central Asia, centre1.com, quoted an unnamed member of the Uzbek security forces as saying that she had been poisoned at the start of November and buried in a shallow grave (Nov. 22).

The centre1.com story was widely sited across the media until her London-based son, also called Islam Karimov, released a statement two days later saying that she was alive and well.

“These are just rumours. She’s alive and still bound to a house arrest sentence ,” he told the BBC.

Even so, Ms Karimova has still not been seen in public.

On a trip to Tashkent last month by the Bulletin, though, it was clear that she still carries a degree of support from ordinary people, despite Western media referring to her as the most hated person in Uzbekistan – a reference based on a 2005 diplomatic cable sent from the US embassy in Tashkent to Washington.

Umida, 22, a Tashkent-based student, said that it would be good if the glamorous Ms Karimova returned to public life.

“Gulnara did lots of useful things in the sphere of culture and education and gave many opportunities to young people,” she said.

Dilmurad, 28, agreed. “I don’t know whether the accusations about her are right or wrong, but I would like to see many of the social projects she organised, the Forum Foundation, Art Week Style, Marathons, Fighting Breast Cancer, being held once again.”

ENDS