The late autocrat Islam Karimov’s daughter Gulnara Karimova is being kept under long-term arrest as she is too dangerous for Uzbek officials, her son, also named Islam Karimov, said in a BBC interview released on August 1.

"They're so scared of my mother, not only her voice, her opinion, [but also] the information she has," he said. "If she comes out for 10 minutes and talks, the downfall of so many people in the government will be guaranteed - and that's what they're scared of."

Her son’s interview marks an attempt at putting forward the alleged real reason why Karimova has been under arrest since 2014, with little information about her status and condition released by the authorities until 28 July when the Uzbek prosecutor’s office said she was sentenced in 2015 to five years of “restricted freedom” for embezzlement, extortion and tax evasion.

In total, the prosecutor’s office said Karimova and her associates had stolen $1.6bn, €26mn, and UZS1.27tn ($311mn) which roughly adds up to $2bn. The amounts were the focus of an international telecom probe, which involved Nordic TeliaSonera, Russian VimpelCom and MTS. The companies were accused of bribing entities connected to Karimova to win licences to operate 3G and 4G services on the Uzbek mobile market. VimpelCom was fined $795m by the US and Dutch authorities for the bribes it paid in Uzbekistan and Telia agreed on a $1bn settlement.

Karimova’s son also claimed that his mother only remained alive due to computer files she removed from Uzbekistan prior to her disappearance. That allegation may explain rumours that Karimova had been killed by poisoning and buried in a cemetery near Tashkent and chimes with her lawyer Grégoire Mangeat’s insistence that her security was not guaranteed, despite her being in good health.

"Give my mother a right to defend herself," her son told the BBC.