Uzbekistan’s president Islam Karimov, who has built his authoritarian rule on warnings of a militant Islamist threat to the Central Asian region, suffered a brain hemorrhage on Saturday and is in stable condition in intensive care, his daughter said. Doctors can not predict his health condition for the nearest future.
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The Uzbekistan presidency’s press service issued a statement Sunday on its website saying the 78-year-old “is now hospitalized”.
“Uzbekistan faces many uncertainties but one thing is sure – this 77-year-old “predator of press freedom” will continue censoring and ruling with an iron hand until he breathes his last”, a RSF report from last year states.
An Uzbek police auto parked at an area around the government hospital where Ukbek President, Islam Karimov iss being treated, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016.
“It means the world to us, and I am sure that your heartfelt good wishes are helping in his recovery”, wrote Karimova-Tillyaeva, Uzbekistan’s ambassador to UNESCO.
Karimov has been at the helm of the country since before it gained independence from Moscow in 1991.
Sources close to the People Movement of Uzbekistan (PMU), an umbrella group of diaspora opposition movements headed by exiled political activist Muhammad Solih, claimed to have been present when Karimov lost consciousness on August 26, when the Uzbek leader received the country’s Olympic team at his residence near Tashkent.
The youngest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, has thanked her fellow citizens for showing their support in her father’s struggle to overcome his serious illness, TASS reports.
“We would like to receive only positive news about the president’s health”.
Security forces cordoned off the government hospital in the capital, Tashkent, where Karimov is being treated, amid growing fears of potential instability.
Exiled Uzbek political scientist Kamoliddin Rabbimov said Uzbek officials would “probably flock to Karimov’s bedside”. Karimov reportedly lost consciousness after consuming some alcohol at the banquet, the PMU said in a statement on its website.
In theory the head of the senate should step in if Karimov dies or is incapable of ruling, but analysts dismissed him as a water-carrier.
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Following his recent health problems, prime-minister Shavkat Mirzioiev and vice-minister Rustam Azimov are the leading candidates in order to replace Mr. Karimov.
