A group of Odesa regional lawmakers have signed a petition written by heads of Ukrainian regional prosecution offices for Deputy Prosecutor General and Odesa Region Prosecutor David Sakvarelidze to be sacked and barred from holding a prosecution office at all.

A copy of the petition, which was addressed to Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin and signed by Dmytro Golubov, Yevhen Deidei, Serhiy Kivalov, Oleksandr Urbansky, Oleksandr Presman, Vasyl Huliaiev, Pavlo Ungurian and Vitaly Barvinenko, is available on the website of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office.

According to the signatories, in the half year that he spent serving as the prosecutor of the Odesa region, Sakvarelidze did nothing to reinforce law and order, nor for investigating and resolving crimes in the region.

The parliamentarians said they are convinced that Sakvarelidze is holding the office solely in the interests of the head of the Odesa regional administration, Mikheil Saakashvili.

"The current Ukrainian law 'On prosecution' (further, the Law) makes no provision for such office as Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General-Regional Prosecutor in the prosecution system (Article 15 of the Law). Meanwhile, under Article 27 of the Law, a Ukrainian citizen who has worked at least three years as a prosecutor may be appointed as a regional prosecutor; a Ukrainian citizen who has worked at least five years as a prosecutor may be appointed as the Prosecutor General. There is no information as to whether David Sakvarelidze has the required work experience as a prosecutor in the Ukrainian prosecution system. Furthermore, the official representation site of the Ukrainian president has no presidential decree granting Ukrainian citizenship to Sakvarelidze, which casts doubt about his Ukrainian citizenship, a mandatory requirement for serving as a prosecutor. Nor do we have any information as to whether Sakvarelidze has been granted access to state secrets," reads the petition.

"Currently, an overwhelming majority of district prosecutors in Odesa region disfavor Sakvarelidze as the Odesa regional prosecutor. Such a negative attitude in general reflects on the work of Odesa regional prosecution and leads to chaos in the management. Furthermore, we have learnt that most prosecutors are resisting the pressure on the part of the Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General-Odesa Regional Prosecutor and of their refusal to fulfill knowingly criminal orders issued by Sakvarelidze," the politicians said.

"In view of the above, and guided by Article 16 of the Ukrainian law 'On the status of a Ukrainian people's deputy' we hereby ask to you to respond with appropriate measures to discontinue violation of the current laws by the Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General-Odesa Regional Prosecutor, D. Sakvarelidze. Please, let us know the results of your consideration of this petition and the measures taken in a manner and time period provided by the Ukrainian law 'On the status of a Ukrainian people's deputy'," the parliamentarians said.