Zhiuli Shartava

Zhiuli Shartava (Georgian: ჟიული შარტავა; March 7, 1944 – September 27, 1993) was a Georgian politician and National Hero who served as the Head of the Government of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia and was killed by Abkhaz militants during the ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia in 1993.

When the city of Sukhumi fell to the Abkhazian separatist forces on September 27, 1993, Shartava with other members of the Abkhaz Government (Guram Gabiskiria, Raul Eshba, Alexander Berulava, Mamia Alasania, Sumbat Saakian, Misha Kokaia and others) refused to flee and were captured by the Abkhaz militants.

[3] In 2005, American journalist Malcolm Linton displayed his photo materials taken during the war in Abkhazia at the art gallery in Tbilisi, where Shartavas body was identified among the pile of corpses, clearly visible on one of the photographs.

On video materials taken during the capture of Sukhumi by the militants, Shartava is carried out from the Government building and physically assaulted, after which he was forced into the van and taken to the outskirts of Sukhumi where he was killed with other Georgian and Abkhaz members of the government and their staff.

[4][5] In 1994, Shartava was officially honored as the National Hero of Georgia posthumously in 2004.

Malcolm Lintons Photo gallery in Tbilisi where Shartavas body was identified among the piles of corpses on the photograph.