Jugelia was shot at 19:30 local time with a Winchester rifle while sitting on the verandah of the cafe Kiki in Sukhumi. Around 19:45 he was brought to the Sukhumi Republican Hospital with severe wounds to his neck and the left axillary region to which he then succumbed. Witnesses reported that a masked man had left his car and shot Jugelia from point-blank range in the back of the head.[4]
On 30 January, Apsnypress reported that initial investigations put forward two possible scenarios for the murder:[5]
- Since Jugelia was actively fighting against drug trafficking and corruption, it is possible that someone who was directly affected by this decided to remove him.
- The murder could have been committed by criminals in order to demonstrate the weakness of the law agencies, and to create a climate profitable for their activities.
Earlier investigators had also said that it could not be excluded that Jugelia was murdered by a foreign power in order to hamper the government's work towards socio-economic improvement.[6]
