GENEVA (AP) — The daughter of a former president of Uzbekistan went on trial in absentia Monday in Switzerland in connection with alleged bribery and money laundering involving assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of former President Islam Karimov, is behind bars in Uzbekistan as the trial opens in a Swiss federal criminal court in the southern city of Bellinzona. It's set to run through May 22.
Swiss prosecutors say Karimova developed and ran a crime ring known as “The Office” that involved several dozen people and multiple companies. She is accused of depositing hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of funds “of criminal origin” in Switzerland and abroad, and arranging for safe deposit boxes for the deposit of cash, jewelry and other valuables of criminal origin, the prosecutors said.
Grégoire Mangeat, one of her defense lawyers, said in an email that Karimova was being prevented from leaving the “prison colony” where she has been detained in Uzbekistan to attend the trial.
“We will seek the full and complete acquittal of Gulnara Karimova,” he said.
Uzbek news outlet Podrobno described Karimova’s presence in the Swiss courtroom as “virtually impossible” as the 53-year-old was already serving her sentence in Uzbekistan.
It said that Karimova had been moved to a women’s penal colony in Uzbekistan’s Zangiota region, on the outskirts of the capital, Tashkent, in early 2025.
Karimova was indicted three years ago in Switzerland along with a former director-general of the Uzbek subsidiary of a Russian telecommunications company for crimes allegedly committed between 2005 and 2013.
That was during her father's tenure. He led the Central Asian country for over a quarter-century until his death in 2016. Karimova had previously worked in Geneva in connection with the United Nations, and benefited from diplomatic immunity.
Karimova has faced a series of trials after a first conviction in Uzbekistan eight years ago, and is serving a 13-year sentence for organizing a criminal group, extortion and embezzlement.
In November 2024, Swiss prosecutors announced the indictment of Swiss private bank Lombard Odier and a former employee on allegations they had a “decisive role in concealing the proceeds of the criminal activities of ‘The Office.’”
Lombard Odier, in an email, said the prosecutor doesn't allege that the bank knowingly or intentionally engaged in money laundering, “but rather raises claims relating to alleged organizational shortcomings in prevention measures, which the bank firmly contests and will defend in court.”
FILE - Gulnara Karimova arrives for the screening of the film "The Exodus - Burnt By The Sun 2", at the 63rd international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, on May 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV prayed Monday in the Vatican with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, and vowed to keep working to overcome differences “no matter how intractable they may appear,” in a historic meeting with the first female leader of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion.
The encounter between Christianity’s two most famous religious figures would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, given the divisions between their two churches over women’s ordination in general and Mullally's appointment in particular.
Leo acknowledged that “new problems” in their relationship had been added onto “historically divisive issues.” But he nevertheless vowed to continue the tradition of past popes to continue to try to reunite the churches.
Anglicans split from Rome in 1534, when English King Henry VIII was refused a marriage annulment. Despite a formal theological dialogue that began in the 1960s, big differences remain, especially over the Church of England’s decision to ordain women. The Roman Catholic Church reserves the priesthood for men.
Leo quoted the late Pope Francis as telling Anglican primates that “it would be a scandal if, due to our divisions, we did not fulfil our common vocation to make Christ known.”
“For my part, I add that it would also be a scandal if we did not continue to work towards overcoming our differences, no matter how intractable they may appear,” Leo said.
Mullally, whose appointment has split the already divided Anglican Communion, arrived an hour early to meet with Leo. She thanked him for welcoming her on her first foreign visit since she was installed last month.
After meeting in Leo's library, the two then prayed together in the Urban VIII Chapel inside the Apostolic Palace for what the Vatican said was a “moment of prayer.” Mullally’s office said Leo presided but that they both “said the grace together.” The Vatican released photos and video of the meeting and prayer, both of which were closed to the press.
In her remarks to Leo, Mullally said both of them were called to preach the Gospel with “renewed clarity.”
“In the face of inhuman violence, deep division, and rapid societal change, we must keep telling a more hopeful story: that every human life has infinite value because we are precious children of God; that the human family is called to live as sisters and brothers,” she said. “We must therefore work together for the common good — always building bridges, never walls; that the poorest among us are closest to the heart of God.”
Mullally is on what she has called a four-day pilgrimage to Rome that has included visits to the main pontifical basilicas, where she has prayed at the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul and met with top Vatican officials.
Lambeth Palace says her visit is designed “to strengthen Anglican–Roman Catholic relations through prayer, personal encounter, and formal theological dialogue. It aims to deepen bonds of communion, affirm a shared witness, and encourage ongoing collaboration at both global and local levels.”
The first female Anglican priests were ordained in 1994, its first female bishop in 2015, and now Mullally as the first archbishop of Canterbury.
Leo and Mullally have already exchanged greetings, with Leo congratulating her on her installation last month but acknowledging she was taking over at a “challenging” time and that differences still divide the Anglican and Catholic churches.
He nevertheless vowed to continue dialogue, and in October Leo welcomed King Charles III and Queen Camilla to the Vatican, where they prayed in the Sistine Chapel. Charles is the titular head of the Church of England.
That event, Oct. 25, marked the first time since the Reformation that the heads of the two Christian churches had prayed together.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the first formal ecumenical statement between the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches, signed in 1966 at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls basilica by Archbishop Michael Ramsey and Pope Paul VI.
Mullally for her part has expressed solidarity with Leo’s peace message, after the American-born pope was harshly criticized by U.S. President Donald Trump for his calls for peace in Iran.
Popes past have met with female Christian bishops and archbishops: Francis met in 2015 with Archbishop Antje Jackelén, the first woman to lead the Lutheran Church of Sweden. Francis also invited the female Anglican bishop, Jo Bailey Wells, into a private meeting of his cardinal advisers in 2024 to discuss the role of women in the Catholic Church.
George Gross, an expert on theology and the monarchy at King’s College London, said Monday's meeting was historic, particularly given the Vatican doesn't recognize the female priesthood.
“If we were to go back several hundred years, it’s unthinkable,” he said. “It’s the fact that the pope is willing to meet, but in itself it also shows the difference, the gap.”
Gross said the prayer was clearly an attempt to show the two churches united, especially in confronting the global conflicts and projecting a message of unity. Such optics, he said, were in continuity with the visit to the Vatican in October by the king.
“It’s a doubling down of togetherness,” he said.
Mullallay's appointment though has split the Anglican Communion, whose 100 million members in 165 countries are deeply divided over issues such as the role of women and the treatment of LGBTQ+ people. Many in England and other Western countries hailed her appointment as a historic breaking of a stained-glass ceiling.
But the communion’s largest and fastest-growing churches in Africa belong to a conservative group called the Global Anglican Future Conference, or Gafcon, which has sharply criticized her appointment and threatened a final break. In the U.S., the conservative Anglican Church in North America formed in a break from the more liberal U.S. and Canadian Episcopal churches and has signed onto the Gafcon statement opposing Mullally’s appointment.
Mullallay told Leo, who has just returned from a four-nation African voyage, that she would soon be following in his footsteps with a visit to Cameroon and Ghana in July.
"Your pilgrimage to Africa was full of life and joy," she said. “It reminded us that despite our sufferings, people long for life in all its fullness, and countless people are working each day for this vision of the common good.”
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV prays with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, left, in the Urban VIII Chapel inside the Apostolic Palace, at the Vatican, Monday, April 27, 2026. (Vatican Media via AP)
Pope Leo XIV leaves after presiding over Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican during which he made ten new priests, Sunday, April 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
FILE - Sarah Mullally speaks to the public after the Enthronement Ceremony installing her as archbishop of Canterbury in Canterbury, England, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, the first woman ever to lead the Church of England. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)
