SUKHUMI, May 21. /TASS/. The doctors are assessing the condition of Abkhaz presidential candidate, one of the opposition leaders Aslan Bzhaniya, who was hospitalized in Moscow, as critical but stable, Abkhaz Prosecutor General Zurab Achba said on Tuesday.
Bzhaniya was hospitalized in critical condition on April 18. His family is claiming that he might have been poisoned, citing the results of an independent medical test carried out in a German clinic.
"The condition is critical but stable. Considering this fact, the investigative proceedings cannot be applied for the patient," Achba said at a meeting in Sukhumi, announcing the results of the preliminary results of the pre-investigative checks of Bzhaniya’s hospitalization.
Neurologist Nara Kvitsiniya was present at the meeting and said that Bzhaniya’s disease is autoimmune. "It often [starts] after viral infection, including flu," she clarified. Earlier, Parliament Speaker Valery Kvarchiya said that according to the medical report the poisoning is ruled out.
On May 20, Abkhaz President Raul Khadzhimba said that the Abkhaz Prosecutor General’s Office together with colleagues from Moscow had started investigating the information on Bzhaniya’s disease.
Situation in Abkhazia
The Abkhazian opposition earlier demanded that the presidential election be delayed from July 21 to the fall due to the illness of the major opposition candidate, Aslan Bzhaniya. On Monday, the parliament refused to delay the election until November 23. In response, the opposition announced an indefinite protest in Sukhumi and the beginning of acts of civil disobedience across the country, two sections of roads of national importance were blocked.
The Abkhaz President accused the opposition of attempting to seize power and called on the people to resist provocations.