Four Suspects in Ankvab’s Assassination Attempt Sent to Pre-Trial Detention

Court in breakaway Abkhazia ordered on April 14 two-month pre-trial detention of four local men, suspected in assassination attempt against Abkhaz leader Alexander Ankvab, Abkhaz news agency, Apsnipress, reported.

Six men were initially arrested this week in investigation into the attack on Ankvab’s motorcade in February in which two bodyguards of the Abkhaz leader were killed. It seems that two men were released later as four suspects appeared before the court on April 14.

Among those four men, sent to pre-trial detention, is a well-known businessman in Abkhazia, Anzor Butba. Three others – Alkhas Khutaba, Ramzi Khashig and Timur Khutaba, are reportedly little known to the wider public in the breakaway region.

According to the Abkhaz laws charges should be formally brought against the four suspects before May 12, 2012.

According to Apsnipress, the Abkhaz law enforcement agencies continue taking measures “to identify other accomplices of the crime.”