New Justice Minister, Tea Tsulukiani, has requested President Saakashvili to dismiss chief prosecutor Murtaz Zodelava.

According to Justice Minister’s spokesperson, Tsulukiani wanted to personally inform about her decision chief prosecutor Zodelava, but was unable to meet him because Zodelava is not in Georgia and it’s unclear when he will return back to the country. Tsulukiani’s predecessor, Zurab Adeishvili, who was an influential government member in President Saakashvili’s administration, has also left the country.

The President has the right to appoint or dismiss chief prosecutor upon Justice Minister’ request.

The new Justice Minister has also requested the President to appoint as new chief prosecutor Archil Kbilashvili, a defense lawyer with 18 years of experience, who is now a majoritarian MP from Georgian Dream, elected in Bagdati single-mandate constituency.

PM Bidzina Ivanishvili’s government plans to maintain the prosecutor’s office within the Justice Ministry, but wants make the post independent from Justice Minister and increase Parliament’s role in respect of the prosecutor’s office.

According to the government’s program it plans to introduce a new rule according to which chief prosecutor will be appointed by the President with an approval from the Parliament.

According to same program, dismissal of chief prosecutor will only be possible either through impeachment procedures or through President’s decision, which will require approval of the Parliament.

Tsulukiani, 37, whom the Parliament confirmed together with the cabinet on October 25, is in politics since early 2010 when she joined Irakli Alasania’s Our Georgia-Free Democrats (OGFD) party. She studied international relations and law at the Tbilisi State University in 1992-1997 and went to the École Nationale d'Administration (ENA), France's elite graduate school for civil servants, in 1998-2000. After graduating ENA she started working as a lawyer at the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, which she left in 2010 when Tsulukiani joined OGFD.

Tsulukiani was elected in the new Parliament as Georgian Dream’s majoritarian MP from Tbilisi’s Nadzaladevi single-mandate constituency, but her MP credentials will be renounced as she went to the executive government.