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Lola Karimova, daughter of Islam Karimov |
At a high court in Paris today, Justice Joel Boyer said that the Rue89 article, which the lawsuit was based on, “did not contain libel” of Lola Karimova. The court also rejected Karimova’s claim for €30,000 in damages.
Augistin Scalbert, who wrote the article “AIDS: Uzbekistan represses at home, but parades in Cannes” in May 2010, was pleased with the court ruling. “The court confirmed that what I wrote in my article is true. We have won,” he said.
Karimova claimed the French website had libelled her by calling her a “dictator’s daughter”. She also claimed it was untrue that she paid €190,000 to Italian actress Monica Belucci for her 20-minute appearance at a charity event Lola Karimova organised in Paris in February 2010.
The trial established that Karimova had paid more money to Belucci than the French website claimed – €230,000.
She also claimed that the article had accused her and her elder sister Gulnara of money laundering, even though the article said they were involved in “clearing the image” of Uzbekistan abroad.
Rue89 journalists said yesterday they were confident of winning the lawsuite. Its editor-in-chief Pierre Haski said that previous hearings in May had all but destroyed the claims made by Karimova.
Rue89 witnesses from Uzbekistan provided convincing evidence at the trial that Uzbekistan was a dictatorship and Lola Karimova represented the regime of her father.
“We were confident about our victory,” Scalbert said. “French courts honour freedom of speech.”
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