TSKHINVALI. Jan 22 (Interfax-AVN) - The Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia will consider on Wednesday an appeal filed by lawyers of Alexei Chibirov, former deputy chairman of the republic's state security committee.
Chibirov was arrested in Tskhinvali on January 7 on charges of attempting a coup d'etat.
Sources close to Chibirov told Interfax-Military News Agency that the defendant considers the charges fabricated and continues the hunger strike that he began on the day of his arrest.
Chibirov is charged with staging a coup d'etat in December 2001, when he and his armed supporters broke into the South Ossetian parliament and demanded that lawmakers cancelled the results of the latest presidential elections. Lyudvig Chibirov, Alexei's father, was running for re-election that time, but lost to Eduard Kokoity.
Alexei Chibirov has not held any posts in South Ossetia lately. If found guilty, he may spend 20 years in prison.
Lyudvig Chibirov has been living in Vladikavkaz since May 2002. He is a leading researcher in the section on history and ethnography of the people of the Caucasus in the Humanitarian Research Institute.