TBILISI – Georgian citizen Shota (Mevlud) Chichiashvili, who was once referred to in Georgia as ‘terrorist number one,’ has been killed in a special operation in Kyiv region, Ukraine, the Georgian Interior Ministry said on Oct. 2.
The ministry told journalists it contacted its Ukrainian partners who confirmed Chichiashvili’s death.
As reported before, Chichiashvili had been declared wanted after opening fire at law enforcement officials and fleeing during an ID check in Obolon district, Kyiv, on Sept. 22.
Georgian media said on Oct. 2 that Chichiashvili, a former member of a security taskforce, had earlier been charged with setting up an armed gang in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Media linked his name to several high-profile crimes committed at the time, particularly abductions, including those of Red Cross mission members and a number of foreign citizens, and even a Georgian parliamentarian.
Chichiashvili left Georgia for Russia in 2001, where he was detained an extradited back to his country in 2004. Georgia sentenced him to 22 years in prison in 2005.
Georgian State Security Minister Valeri Khaburdzania, who served in this capacity in 2001-2004, called Chichiashvili “terrorist number one.”
Media also quoted Koba Narchemashvili, Georgia’s Interior Minister in 2003, as saying at the time that “Chichiashvili is so dangerous that his extradition, escort, and holding in a penitentiary require special control.”
Chichiashvili was pardoned and freed in 2013, after which he left Georgia.
