Kobalia was a commander of the Zugdidi battalion of the National Guard of Georgia at the time when the armed opposition groups launched a coup against President Gamsakhurdia in December 1991.
Kobalia began disarming the Georgian troops retreating from Abkhazia, blocked major roads in western Georgia and engaged with the government forces in a series of battles which eventually led to Gamsakhurdia's defeat at the end of 1993.
After a year-long trial, the Supreme Court of Georgia in 1996 found Kobalia guilty of treason, banditry, and execution of five captured soldiers and a TV journalist David Bolkvadze during the October 1993 hostilities, and sentenced him to death penalty, which was changed for 20-year imprisonment in 1997.
[2] In October 2000 Kobalia and several inmates from the civil war period escaped from the Prison Hospital in Tbilisi, but were recaptured 10 days later in the mountains in the northwest of Georgia.
[3][4] In 2004, he was pardoned by Georgia's newly sworn president Mikheil Saakashvili and released from jail as part of the National Accord policy, leading to protests from Bolkvadze's family and several journalists.