Georgia has formally charged the country’s former Prosecutor General Otar Partskhaladze with ordering a hit on Levan Jangveladze, who, according to media reports, was the brother of an influential member of the so-called thieves-in-law.
According to Netgazeti, Partskhaladze and two associates, the already detained siblings Davit and Giorgi Mikadze, had contracted a confidant, Giorgi Jorkhadze, to plan the murder, which was then carried out by the latter’s bodyguard, Gela Udzilauri.
The murder took place in Tbilisi’s upscale Vake district, on one of the city’s main streets, Chavchavadze Avenue, on the evening of 14 March. According to local media, the victim was the brother of Merab Jangveladze, also known as Merab Sukhumsky.
Both are reportedly high-ranking members of the thieves-in-law, according to historian and transnational crime expert Mark Galeotti.
The Interior Ministry accused Partskhaladze of orchestrating the murder on Monday, placing him on an international wanted list.
Partskhaladze was initially linked to the case in September by Detective Robiko Gogiashvili at one of Udziliauri’s hearings, who said at the time the original mastermind behind the murder was Ded Hasan’s grandson Irakli Usoyan.
Ded Hasan, or Aslan Usoyan, was an influential thief-in-law born in Soviet Georgia and killed in Moscow in 2013 at the age of 75.
At the time, Gogiashvili said that Irakli Usoyan had contracted Partskhaladze and the Mikadze brothers to carry out the hit for $5 million. Earlier, the opposition-leaning TV Pirveli had reported that the Mikadze brothers were associates of Partskhaladze.
Gogiashvili’s testimony did not reveal Usoyan’s motivations but noted that Partskhaladze and the Mikadze brothers had a ‘tense relationship’ with Jangveladze over the export of cigarettes and alcohol to Russia. However, as Gogiashvili mentioned, the Mikadze brothers had not dared to directly act against Jangveladze before, due to his brother Merab’s authority.
Commenting on the case, Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said that several suspects involved were ‘hiding in different places — some are in Europe, some in Russia’.
‘As far as we know, Partskhaladze has lost his Georgian citizenship, he has Russian citizenship, which complicates the extradition process’, he said, stopping short of confirming whether Partskhaladze is currently in Russia, with whom Georgia does not have diplomatic relations.
Partskhaladze was stripped of his Georgian citizenship after he was placed under US sanctions for ties to Russia’s consulting sector and its ‘malign influence’ on Georgia.
At the time, Georgia’s National Bank announced that international sanctions would only be applied to Georgian citizens or legal entities if a Georgian court found them to be guilty on relevant charges. Additionally, in mid-September 2023, the ruling Georgian Dream party stated that freezing Partskhaladze’s assets would go against Georgia’s constitution.
Shota Kincha
That same month, Partskhaladze transferred his real estate assets to his son, Andria Partskhaladze, by paying an additional fee for an expedited procedure. At least 13 immovable assets were transferred, including land, hotels, and apartments.
Hours later, the Justice Ministry announced that it had ruled that Partskhaladze, a dual Georgian—Russian citizen, would lose his Georgian citizenship pending the approval of then-President Salome Zourabichvili, who signed off on the order on 18 October, according to Civil Georgia.
Partskhaladze was likely stripped of his passport on the grounds that Georgian citizens may only hold dual citizenship if granted permission by the state.
He briefly served as Georgia’s general prosecutor in late-2013 and has faced past accusations of violence and extortion linked to Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili. In 2023, the US sanctioned him for ties to Russia’s consulting sector and its ‘malign influence’ on Georgia.
Partskhaladze is the latest former Georgian Dream official to be charged or accused of committing crimes.
Most recently, the authorities ordered former State Security Service (SSG) head Grigol Liluashvili into detention on charges of accepting large-scale bribes as part of a group of other former officials.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
