Otar Partskhaladze has been appointed as new chief prosecutor replacing Archil Kbilashvili, who announced about intention to quit earlier this month.

Partskhaladze, 37, served as head of Finance Ministry’s investigative unit in Shida Kartli region last year before becoming deputy head of this service in January 2013; he was then promoted as head of the ministry’s investigative service. Finance Ministry’s investigative service, informally known as financial police, is in charge of probing into financial wrongdoings.

Also on November 21 first deputy chief prosecutor Lasha Natsvlishvili filed for resignation citing need to give the new chief prosecutor “freedom” to select his team. Chief prosecutor of the capital city Tbilisi, Maia Mtsariashvili, also resigned on the same day.

In a written statement released on November 21, Partskhaladze says that one of his key priorities will be to establish “strong, united and professional team”.

“Prosecutor’s office has gone through a period of transition over the past one year that was characterized with difficulties and problems. It was possible to overcome part of these problems, but I think that now prosecutor’s office faces different and even more difficult challenges,” new chief prosecutor’s statement reads.

“I think one of the key challenges is to achieve stable and sustainable development of the prosecutorial system. It implies carrying out high quality and efficient investigations, providing competent procedural supervision, carrying out prosecution in court proceedings in a qualified way. Most employees of the prosecutor’s office are professionals, but obviously, I do not rule out changes and structural optimization aimed at complete recovery of the system and improvement of its performance,” Partskhaladze said.

Formally Partskhaladze was nominated by Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani and confirmed on the post by new PM Irakli Garibashvili, as envisaged by the law. The prosecutor’s office is under the Justice Ministry. But it was Garibashvili, who first made the public announcement about his intention to have Partskhaladze on this post on November 8; at the time Tsulukiani said that she did not personally knew Partskhaladze, but trusted Garibashvili’s choice.

On November 18, Tsulukiani said that she had a lengthy and detailed discussion with Partskhaladze and added that they are of same opinion over the reforms. 

“He has a very concrete vision about the reforms, which should be carried out in the prosecutor’s office and I will be one of the members of the team to maximally help him,” Tsulukiani said.