(AFP) Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) – Uzbekistan's strongman leader Islam Karimov has kept a stranglehold on power in the Central Asian state for a quarter of a century, even at the expense of his own children.
Long lambasted for brutally crushing dissent by rights groups, the former Soviet apparatchik — in power since 1989 — has reportedly placed his eldest daughter under house arrest after a bitter family feud, with her compared him to Stalin.
The spectacular fall from grace of Gulnara Karimova — a pop-singing, corruption-tainted socialite once seen as his possible successor — has shown just how much her father intends to maintain his vice-like grip on power. […]
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