Former Law Enforcer Handed Life Sentence Over Levan Jangveladze’s Contract Killing

Former law enforcement officer Gela Udzilauri was sentenced to life in prison on October 24 after Tbilisi City Court Judge Giorgi Gelashvili found him guilty of the intentional and contract killing of businessman Levan Jangveladze, the brother of criminal underground authority Merab Jangveladze.

Udzilauri was arrested days after March 14, when Jangveladze was shot dead in Tbilisi’s Vake district. He had remained silent until the October 13 hearing, when he pleaded guilty, citing “revenge” and “loss of self-control” as motives, but denied that the killing was intentional, for mercenary purposes, or carried out on contract.

According to his account, the killing stemmed from a 2022 incident in Ukraine, when he was physically assaulted by a group of people allegedly acting at Jangveladze’s order following a business dispute. RFE/RL’s Georgian Service reported that the defense failed to present any witnesses supporting this version. Udzilauri’s lawyers are expected to appeal the guilty verdict to the Court of Appeals.

According to the prosecutors’ version, however, the killing stemmed from a “certain” business dispute between businessman Giorgi Mikadze and his brother Davit Mikadze, on the one hand, and Levan Jangveladze on the other. The Mikadze brothers allegedly planned Jangveladze’s killing “at the order of other persons involved in the dispute” with the victim. They then shared the plan with their friend and confidante Giorgi Jokhadze, who, together with the brothers, contacted Udzilauri, Jokhadze’s associate, offering him to carry out the killing in exchange for “material profit,” with Udzilauri accepting the offer.

The murder has been a high-profile case, as Levan Jangveladze was the brother of Merab Jangveladze, a so-called “thief-in-law,” a title used for influential figures in the criminal underworld. The killing is believed to have stemmed from disputes among the country’s powerful criminal clans.

The investigation into the case is continuing, as three more suspects are in custody and two others are charged in absentia. Among them are Giorgi Mikadze, who was arrested in August, and his brother Davit Mikadze, who has been charged in absentia.

The Mikadze brothers are reportedly close associates of former Prosecutor General Otar Partskhaladze, a controversial figure sanctioned by the United States and the United Kingdom and a onetime close ally of Bidzina Ivanishvili. Partskhaladze is among several former high-level officials from the Georgian Dream government now under investigation in a new probe.

Partskhaladze’s name surfaced during the September 24 hearing, when detective Robiko Gogiashvili testified that evidence indicated his involvement in the killing. IPN cited Gogiashvili as saying that according to the “operational information,” the grandson of “Grandpa Khasan” – an influential criminal underworld boss killed in 2013, “ordered Otar Partskhalaladze [and] the Mikadze brothers to kill Jangveladze in exchange for five million dollars.”

Following the October 24 ruling, a member of the Jangveladze family told the media that, according to the family’s belief, the murder was indeed ordered by Otar Partskhaladze.

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• 03/02/2018 – Georgia to Criminalize Aiding ‘Thieves-in-Law’

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