Zaur Avidzba (1953–2015) was a politician and businessman from Abkhazia who was murdered in 2015.
In 1993, Avidzba was appointed Deputy Minister for Defence. [1]
On 8 February 2011, veteran Parliamentarian Vladimir Nachach died after a long illness. [2] On 9 March the Central Election Commission decided that the by-election to elect Nachach's successor in constituency no. 16 would be held on 30 April. [3] Zaur Avidzba was one of three candidates to be nominated by an initiative group, [4] and he won the election with 1028 votes to 753 and 166. [5]
In the 2012 elections, Avidzba failed to be re-elected. He won a 33.76% first round plurality against i.a. former Prime Minister Anri Jergenia, but lost the second round to Leonid Chamagua. [6] [7]
On 20 October 2015 at 7:35am local time the Ministry for Internal Affairs was informed with a phone call of a burning car in Gudauta's Pushkin Street. In the car, a Mercedes S-600, the corpse of Avidzba was found with burn and bullet wounds along with four spent 7.62mm cartridges. [8] [9]
On 22 October, a suspect was detained who confessed to the murder and identified the murder weapon. [10]