Blood feud murder in Abkhazia

A string of blood feud murders has been reported in Abkhazia.

Everything started with a murder of Beslan Kvitsinia, 26, a resident of Sukhum, on the first day of the New Year. Roland Zhiba, a resident of Ochamchira district, who is the key suspect in the case, managed to escape to Georgia.

That’s when a blood feud began.

At first, the houses of Roland Zhiba and two of his relatives were burned down in Gtsada village, on the night of January 4. Whereas later, in the evening on January 6, Roman Zhiba, a cousin of the murder suspect, was killed with particular brutality at Beslan Kvitsinia’s grave, in one of Sukhum cemeteries. He was doused with petroleum, set afire and then shot dead.

Afterwards, according to the Abkhaz Interior Ministry’s press service, the Abkhaz militia managed to detain a group of armed men in a vehicle. As reported, some of the seized firearms were used in Zhiba murder case.

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