Jaba Ioseliani
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Jaba Ioseliani | |
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ჯაბა იოსელიანი | |
Member of State Council of Georgia) | |
Leader Of Mkhedrioni | |
In office 1989–1995 | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Position abolished |
Member of the Parliament of Georgia | |
In office 1992–1995 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Khashuri, Georgian SSR, Transcaucasian SFSR, Soviet Union | 10 July 1926
Died | 4 March 2003 Tbilisi, Georgia | (aged 76)
Nationality | Soviet (1926–1991) Georgian (1991–2003) |
Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) |
Signature | |
Jaba Ioseliani (Georgian ჯაბა იოსელიანი; 10 July 1926 – 4 March 2003) was a Georgian politician, member of Parliament of Georgia, writer, thief-in-law and leader of the paramilitary organisation Mkhedrioni.
Born in Khashuri, Georgia, Ioseliani majored in Oriental studies at Leningrad University but did not graduate. He staged a bank robbery in Leningrad in 1948, for which he served 17 years in a Soviet jail. Released in 1965, he later served another sentence for manslaughter. He eventually returned to his native Georgia and graduated from the Georgian Institute of Theater Arts, where he became a professor. He wrote a number of popular plays.
Ioseliani rose to prominence as the leader of the Mkhedrioni, a heavily armed paramilitary group which he founded in 1989. He attempted to take control of large areas of Abkhazia and South Ossetia with the goal of defeating regional separatist elements. In February 1991, his organisation was outlawed by President Zviad Gamsakhurdia and he was imprisoned along with other Mkhedrioni members. In response, Ioseliani accused Gamsakhurdia of trying to take control of state media and silence rivals.
In December 1991, Ioseliani escaped from prison and joined forces with rebel members of the Georgian National Guard to launch a violent
Ioseliani played a major role in the disastrous attempt to enforce Georgian rule in the separatist province of
On 29 August 1995, Shevardnadze narrowly escaped assassination in a bomb attack. The attack was blamed on a shadowy coalition of "mafia forces" including Ioseliani and others. Ioseliani was detained on 15 November 1995 and held for three years pending trial, then on 10 November 1998 sentenced to 11 years for banditry, terrorism, and conspiring to kill Shevardnadze. He denied the charges and was eventually released in the spring of 2000 in a general amnesty of convicts. He suffered a heart attack on 26 February 2003 and died in a Tbilisi hospital a week later. He is buried in the Pantheon of Didube, Tbilisi.[2]
References
- ^ Bonner, Raymond (16 November 1993). "Georgian Fighter Wields Guns, Money and Charm". The New York Times.
- ^ "Dzhaba Ioseliani, 76; Oft-Imprisoned Leader of Georgian Paramilitary Force". Los Angeles Times. 5 March 2003.
External links
- Jaba Ioseliani. Violent warlord in post-Communist Georgia[dead link] The Independent. 25 March 2003. (access on 21 August. 2008)
- Александр КРЫЛОВ (Aleksandr Krylov) Забытые уроки Джабы Иоселиани Archived 11 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine (Forgetting lesson of Dzhaba Ioselani) НОВАЯ ПОЛИТИКА (Novaya Politika - New Policy) 6 March 2006. (access on 21 August. 2008) (In Russian)
- Photograph of Jaba Ioseliani
- Jaba Ioseliani, Biographical Dictionary, National Parliamentary Library of Georgia