Giorgi "Gigi" Ugulava ( ka, გიგი უგულავა) (born August 15, 1975) is a Georgian politician and the former

Mayor of Tbilisi The Mayor of Tbilisi is an elected politician in Tbilisi. Before 2005 the mayors used to be appointed by the central government. In 2006 first mayoral elections were held in the history of the Republic of Georgia. The first elected mayor of Tbilisi ...

(2005–2013). He was one of the former leaders of the United National Movement (UNM) party and former close ally of the former

President of Georgia President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese f ...

Mikheil Saakashvili. On 10 February 2020, he was sentenced to 3 years in prison . However, on May 15, President

Salome Zourabichvili Salome Zourabichvili ( ka, სალომე ზურაბიშვილი, ; born 18 March 1952) is a Franco-Georgian political figure and former diplomat who currently serves as the fifth President of Georgia, in office since December 2018 ...

pardoned Ugulava.

Early career

Born in Tbilisi, Ugulava studied at the Tbilisi Theological Seminary (1992-4) and the

University of Saarbrücken Saarland University (german: Universität des Saarlandes, ) is a public research university located in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German state of Saarland. It was founded in 1948 in Homburg in co-operation with France and is organized in s ...

(1995-7), and graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology at the Tbilisi State University in 1998. Having briefly worked as a journalist for a Tbilisi-based Iberia TV, Internews, and

Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil ...

(1997-9), he became a consultant for the Eurasia Foundation in 2000. He directed the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

Association of Legal and Public Education from 2001 to 2003, and helped organize the youth organization Kmara! ("Enough"). The Kmara movement played a critical role in the bloodless

Rose Revolution The Rose Revolution or Revolution of Roses ( ka, ვარდების რევოლუცია, tr) was a nonviolent change of power that occurred in Georgia in November 2003. The event was brought about by widespread protests over the ...

, which would bring the reformist leader Mikheil Saakashvili to power. Ugulava assumed the position of Deputy Security Minister in the new government and was moved to the post of Governor of

Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti ( Georgian: სამეგრელო-ზემო სვანეთი) is a region (Mkhare) in western Georgia with a population of 308,358 (2021) and a surface of . The region has Zugdidi as its administrative center, ...

in September 2004. On April 20, 2005, he was appointed Chief of the Administration of the

Mayor of Tbilisi

Ugulava was appointed

on July 12, 2005. When this post became elective in 2006, he ran successfully for mayor, and was elected by the

Tbilisi Assembly The Tbilisi Sakrebulo ( ka, თბილისის საკრებულო, tr) is a representative body in the city government of Tbilisi, Georgia. It is also known in English as the Tbilisi City Council or Tbilisi Assembly. Sakrebul ...

on October 12, 2006 and re-elected through a direct vote on May 30, 2010. After the UNM-dominated central government was defeated by the

Georgian Dream Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia ( ka, ქართული ოცნება – დემოკრატიული საქართველო, ''Kartuli ocneba – Demok’rat’iuli Sakartvelo'') is a social democratic political ...

coalition in the 2012 parliamentary election, Ugulava was suspended on 22 December 2013 from his functions by a court for alleged misuse of funds. He was arrested on July 3, 2014 on charges of money misspending and laundering in the funding of his party's campaign in June municipal elections. His supporters accused the government of politically motivated persecution of Ugulava. On 18 September 2015 a court sentenced him to 4.5 years in jail. On 6 January 2017, Ugulava was released from prison after the Tbilisi Court of Appeal requalified the misspending charges, found him guilty of exceeding official powers, acquitted him of money laundering charges, and shortened his sentence by three years and three months. Shortly after his release he (along with several other senior members of the UNM) left the United National Movement to found a new political party: Movement for Freedom - European Georgia. The split occurred due to ideological and political differences.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ugulava, Gigi 1975 births Mayors of Tbilisi Journalists from Tbilisi Living people European Georgia politicians United National Movement (Georgia) politicians