Police have detained a foreign citizen in connection with the death of Abkhaz blogger Daur Buava in Tbilisi. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, the detainee has been charged with abandonment in danger.
“The investigation established that the foreign citizen detained as a suspect and Daur Buava were friends. They were in a rented apartment belonging to Daur Buava in the Didi Dighomi district of Tbilisi, where they jointly consumed a narcotic substance, after which both fell ill.
During the interrogation of the accused, it was revealed that he left Buava alone in a critically severe, life-threatening condition. Specifically, the accused locked the apartment’s front door from the outside with a spare key and fled the scene without reporting the incident or seeking assistance for Daur Buava.”
The investigation is being conducted under Articles 115 (incitement to suicide) and 128 (abandonment in danger) of the Criminal Code of Georgia.
As a reminder, 32-year-old blogger from Abkhazia Daur Buava was found dead in Tbilisi on August 28. CCTV footage indicates that Buava entered the building for the last time on the 23rd.
In 2022, it became known that the de facto State Security Service of Abkhazia had charged the blogger with “high treason.” His home was also searched at the time. In 2021, he moved to Tbilisi from Tkvarcheli and never returned.
Since 2021, Buava had been publishing TikTok videos addressing friendship between Georgians and Abkhazians, prospects for co-existence, and other topics.
The de facto Security Service of Abkhazia claimed that Buava’s video materials harmed the “security and defense capability of the state of Abkhazia and were aimed at assisting a hostile state against Abkhazia.”
