By Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
According to Abkhaz law enforcers, Georgia has recently caught the suspected murderer of Dmitry Vishernyov, the first secretary of the Russian Embassy in Abkhazia. Abkhaz authorities say that the man was identified as Yusuf Lakayev, 25, a native from Chechnya.
Lakayev and his accomplices were detained during a special counter-terrorism operation of the Georgian Interior Ministry on September 23. “A police patrol stopped a car in Batumi's center at 11.00 pm to check documents,” the Georgian Interior Ministry says. When the police officers asked people in the car to show documents, one of them drew a Springfield Armoy pistol and opened fire. A patrol officer, a passer-by and the shooter himself (Yusuf Lakayev) were injured.
Later, the police sources reported that, a few days before the incident, Georgian intelligence services had received information about the man hiding in the house of Piruz Tsulukidze, 20, in Adjara. Tsulukidze and his friend Timur Bakhuntaradze, 44, from Batumi were planning to take Lakayev to Turkey. Tsulukidze and Bakhuntaradze follow Islam and were monitored by intelligence officers as part of an Islamic organization in Adjara for a long time. Tsulukidze was a member of the Georgian national wrestling team, from which he was expelled over suspicions of his contacts with Islamic organizations. Tsulukidze was not permitted to visit Bulgaria for the world championship in August because of the suspicions.
Lakayev is the 48th name in the list of people and organizations threatening the Sochi Olympic Games. The Georgian Interior Ministry emphasizes that Lakayev was an illegal resident in Georgia. Although, no details of where he had come from and how he had entered the country were given.
Searches through the apartments of Lakayev, Bakhuntaridze and Tsulukidze have resulted in finding of small arms and weapons. A criminal case was initiated for resistance and violence against a law enforcer.
The Georgian Interior Ministry denies the information from the Abkhaz sources. The latter claimed that Lakayev was detained as a suspect of the diplomat’s murder. The ministry said that Lakayev had no other than the said charges.
Paata Beridze, lawyer for the detained, told Vestnik Kavkaza that his defendants were not charged with murder in Abkhazia.
Jokola Achishvili, one of the members of the Ex-Political Convicts for Human Rights that works on the case of their arrest in Batumi, told Vestnik Kavkaza that Lakayev “was asking for pardoning from the Georgian people for shooting the police officer.” The three suspects were detained for two months. “Lakayev said that he was pursued in Russia for being a member of an illegal armed formation. We offered to tell them about his detention, but he responded, saying that he did not want to contact anyone,” Achishvili said.
According reliable sources, Lakayev’s involvement in the assassination of the Russian diplomat is beyond even the slightest doubts. Right after his detention, Georgian intelligence services sent DNA samples to Russia. They coincided with the DNA found at his apartment in Sukhumi. The biggest question is who hired him to kill the Russian diplomat.
