(2 Sep 2016) The government of Uzbekistan said on Friday that ailing President Islam Karimov was in critical condition, following a week of speculation that the country's president of nearly 27 years was gravely ill.
"Dear compatriots, it is with a heavy heart that we inform you that the health of our President has sharply deteriorated in the past 24 hours to reach a critical state, according to the doctors," the government said in a statement.
Friday's announcement follows days of unofficial reports that Karimov was close to death, or even dead.
His daughter, Lola, said earlier this week that the 78-year old had suffered a brain haemorrhage.
Karimov has run an authoritarian regime in the Central Asian nation since 1989, suppressing opposition and cultivating no apparent successor.
He hasn't been seen in public since mid-August, and his government last weekend admitted he was ill.
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