Bodyguard of Abkhaz president arrested on suspicion of involvement in murder of 3

A bodyguard of the president of Abkhazia has been arrested for suspected  involvement in a shooting in November 2019 on the embankment in Sukhumi which killed three.

Dato Akhalaya has been taken into custody for two months for the pre-trial investigation period.

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No details of the case have been reported – his pre-trial hearing took place behind closed doors in the building of the State Security Service.

On November 22, a group of unidentified persons drove up to the Ritsa Hotel on the embankment in Sukhum by car and opened fire on machine guns at visitors to the San Remo restaurant, located on the ground floor of the hotel.

Three people died. Two of them were apparently the main targets – “thieves in law” Astamur Shamba and Alkhas Avidzba. The third was an innocent bystander, 22-year-old Dominika Akirtava, who died in the hospital a few days later.

Dato Akhalaya is the second to be detained for the crime. Earlier, his brother Demur Akhalaya was arrested, who has held positions at the Anti-Terrorism Center, as well as the State Security Service over his career.

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