TBILISI, DFWatch–Davit Sakvarelidze, a former Georgian official, has been fired as deputy chief prosecutor of Ukraine.
He was fired for violating the ethics of a prosecutor, and for interfering in the business of another prosecutor, according to the the website of the Chief Prosecutor’s Office on Monday.
In his home country Georgia, Sakvarelidze had the corresponding position, deputy chief prosecutor, from 2008 to 2012 during Mikheil Saakashvili’s presidency. Like his former boss and many of his associates, he found a new career in Ukraine after the National Movement party was voted out of power by two thirds of Georgian voters in 2012.
But recently, Ukraine’s chief prosecutor’s office has received a number of complaints from members of parliament who think it is a violation of Law on the Prosecutor’s Office to allow Sakvarelidze to continue in his post.
Ukrainian media reported a month ago that another deputy Prosecutor Vitaly Kasko resigned accusing the Prosecutor’s Office of corruption.
Sakvarelidze who also was a member of the Georgian parliament from 2012 to 2015, said Monday that firing people who are fighting corruption means that nobody needs reforms in Ukraine.
“I want to declare that yes, I violated the ethics of a prosecutor, but I violated it the way they see it. They understand the ethics of a prosecutor is to rob, being corrupt and being under cover. I violated these ethics and will always offend,” he said, adding that his major goal was to fight the corruption and he had this order from the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko.
Saakashvili wrote on Facebook on Monday that Poroshenko should state his opinion clearly. He thinks the president gave a mandate to Sakvarelidze to fight against the mafia in Odessa together with Saakashvili.
He claimed the real reason Sakvarelidze was fired was that a crime group in Odessa demanded it, and warned of serious results of this decision.
The same day, police arrested Alexandre Modebadze, who worked for Sakvarelidze and was appointed by him two weeks ago, for accepting a USD 5,000 bribe.
In summer, another former Georgian official, Alexandre Kvitashvili, resigned as Ukraine’s health minister.
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