21 May 2019 20:09

Abkhazian doctors rule out poisoning of parliamentarian Bzhania - speaker

SUKHUM. May 21 (Interfax) - The Abkhazian parliamentarian Aslan Bzhaniya was not poisoned, Abkhazian doctors concluded after receiving documents from the Moscow clinic he is being treated, parliament speaker Valery Kvarchiya said at an enlarged meeting with deputies in Sukhum on Tuesday.

"We have received an official medical conclusion which rules out poisoning," Kvarchiya said.

A team of Abkhazian investigators are in Moscow to probe the causes of Bzhaniya's health deterioration, Abkhazian Prosecutor General Zurab Achba said. They are going to question his family, doctors and two bodyguards who were taken with similar symptoms to another hospital in Moscow. "It is too soon to make any assertion before completing the inquiry and collating Bzhaniya's and his aides' diagnoses," Achba said.

On April 18 the Abkhazian opposition leader was hospitalized after suddenly falling ill in Sochi. The following day Bzhaniya was flown in critical condition to Moscow's clinic hospital N12 and his two bodyguards were taken with similar symptoms to the city's Sklifosovsky First Aid Research Institute.