SUKHUM, January 9./TASS/. Abkhazian President Raul Khajimba does not rule out that a state of emergency may be declared in the country amid the developments in capital city Sukhum.

"All state government bodies are operating in the routine mode. The law enforcement agencies have been placed on a heightened state of alert. In case of a need, I will take measures to impose a state of emergency in the country," the president said in a statement uploaded to the presidential website.

"We have already discussed such development of the events with the Security Council," Khajimba said.

Situation in Abkhazia

Abkhazia’s opposition was to hold a demonstration in Sukhum on Thursday in protest against last September’s presidential election. Originally the protesters were going to demonstrate in front of the court building, where Abkhazia’s Supreme Court resumed hearings on a lawsuit filed by the opposition’s presidential candidate Alkhas Kvitsiani, from the Amtsakhara party, in protest against the ruling pronounced by a court of lower instance to declare the election valid.

Another crowd of several hundred gathered in front of the presidential staff. The protest concerned the arrest of a suspect in the November 2019 killing of three persons. The suspect is allegedly one of the Abkhazian president’s bodyguards. The rally’s organizer, Akhra Avidzba, is a relative of one of those killed. Later in the day opposition demonstrators moved to the building of the presidential staff. The crowd put forward a demand for the resignation of President Raul Khadzhimba and forced their way into the building of the presidential staff. Khajimba is elsewhere.