Three versions of Zakan Jughelia’s murder

According to Abkhazia's Interior Ministry on the evening of January 26 Zakan Jughelia, the Deputy Interior Minister, was murdered in Sukhum. President Sergey Bagapsh stated this murder was connected with his professional activity.

According to the press the Deputy Minister was shot down when he was drinking coffee on the "Kiki" bar veranda in Sukhum. The data on the number of killers are different - one or two. The same about the arms: some mention a shotgun, others - a Winchester rifle. There is no unique description of circumstances of the assassination either. According to some evidence the shooting was done from a car, another version is that the assassin entered the bar and shot Jughelia dead.

Due to the wounds of the chest and the head the Deputy Minister died on the operating table in Sukhum's republican hospital. The intercept plan announced throughout Abkhazia gave no results.

The dead official took part in the 1992-1993 Georgian-Abkhazian war and was awarded a "Leon Order". Later Jughelia was at the head of economic crimes department of the republic's Interior Ministry. In 2005 he was appointed Deputy Minister and the head of criminal police. He was in charge of organizing the work of law-enforcement authorities in Gali district and Kodori gorge. Besides he "was managing" an agent net in the republic and near-border Georgian districts.

Abkhazian law-enforcement authorities are studying three versions of the murder. The first is that Jughelia's murder could be contracted by drug cartels acting in the republic. According to the head of Prosecutor General's department of inquiry Jemal Gogia he was actively opposing illegal drug trade. He was also responsible for economic crimes detection and exposure.

Alongside with that the Prosecutor General's office supposes that local criminal forces could take care of the Deputy Minister. Jughelia was directly managing operational work over loud cases connected with assaults on cash collectors of state and private companies.

"Probably their purpose was to disorganize the work of the authorities, create an atmosphere of criminal terror, and demonstrate helplessness of the law-enforcement authorities of the country to the people", - Rosbalt is quoting Jemal Gogia.

According to common logic the third version involves the Georgian trace. Gogia's comment is this: "The murder could be committed by the special services of a foreign country in order to destabilize the internal political situation in the country, interfere with the activities of the authorities aimed at social and economic development of the country".

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