Uzbek in Swiss Money-Laundering Case Was Unfairly Detained, Says UN Panel

The Banque Lombard Odier & Cie SA in Geneva, Switzerland.Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

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By Hugo Miller

July 2, 2025 at 3:00 PM UTC

Updated on

July 2, 2025 at 5:25 PM UTC

The Uzbek businesswoman at the heart of an impending Swiss money-laundering trial involving Lombard Odier & Cie was unfairly detained by her government for years, a United Nations panel concluded.

The June opinion by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention makes repeated references to the Swiss case against Gulnara Karimova and Lombard Odier, and while it isn’t legally binding defense lawyers could use its conclusions to try to weaken the prosecutors’ case.