Abkhaz opposition leader’s bodyguards return home after being treated for poisoning

The bodyguards of the Abkhaz opposition leader Aslan Bzhania have returned home after being poisoned and held in a clinic in Moscow for several weeks.

It all began April 19. Aslan Bzhania, a presidential candidate from the united opposition in the Abkhaz elections scheduled for August 2019, suddenly became so ill that he was sent by an emergency charter flight to a Moscow clinic. Since then he has been there in intensive care.

On April 21, his bodyguards Levan Bzhania and Kasou Darsalia were hospitalized in Moscow with the same symptoms, but in a milder form.

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Despite the end of the course of treatment, both bodyguards are still not back to full health. Levan Bzhania said he lost eight kilograms and it is still difficult for him to swallow.

Aslan Bzhania’s samples were studied in a laboratory in Munich, which showed that he had high levels of mercury in his blood and aluminum in the urine. The official conclusion made in the Abkhaz parliament was that the politician had been purposefully poisoned.

Starting May 20, a street protest involving thousands of people took place in Sukhum.

The opposition demanded to postpone the presidential election from the already announced July 21 date to a later date so that its leader and the election leader could take part in them.

On May 22, negotiations were held with President Raul Khajimba, who promised to appeal to the Central Election Commission with a request to postpone the elections to August 25.

Now this decision must be approved by the Parliament of Abkhazia.