Murder
On June 9, 2004, Aiba's car came under fire, fifty metres from his home in Sukhumi. He got out of the car in an attempt to protect his ten-year old daughter, but was seriously injured, and died later that day in hospital. His death sent shockwaves through Abkhaz politics. Aiba had no business links and many people claimed that the killing was politically motivated. It sparked the resignations of several prominent ministers, including foreign minister (and fellow Amtsakhara leader) Sergey Shamba, interior minister Abessalom Beiya and Givi Agrba, head of the security services. However, Shamba later denied that his resignation was related to Aiba's death, and Prime Minister Raul Khadjimba refused to accept the resignations of Beiya and Agrba.
No one has yet been charged with Aiba's murder. Former opposition leader Sergei Bagapsh has since become president.
Read more about this topic: Garri Aiba
Famous quotes containing the word murder:
“Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
The Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence
The life o’ the building.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks;
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.”
—Anonymous. Late 19th century ballad.
The quatrain refers to the famous case of Lizzie Borden, tried for the murder of her father and stepmother on Aug. 4, 1892, in Fall River, Massachusetts. Though she was found innocent, there were many who contested the verdict, occasioning a prodigious output of articles and books, including, most recently, Frank Spiering’s Lizzie (1985)
“It was a hot afternoon and I can still remember the smell of honeysuckle all along the street. How can I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle?”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)