Former Makhachkala Mayor Jailed For Planning Terrorist Act

The former mayor of the Daghestani capital, Makhachkala, has been sentenced to 10 years in a maximum-security jail.

Russia's North Caucasus Regional Military Court found Said Amirov guilty of planning a terrorist act and illegal weapons possession on July 9 and sentenced him the same day.

Amirov was arrested in June 2013 and charged with involvement in plotting a missile attack against a plane carrying Sagid Murtazaliev, the head of the Russian Pension Fund's branch in Daghestan, and of organizing the 2011 murder of Investigative Committee official Arsen Gadzhibekov.

Amirov's co-defendant, the former deputy mayor of the city of Kaspiisk, Yusup Dzhaparov, received 8 1/2 years in jail on the same charges.

Both had pleaded not guilty.

Amirov, 60, became Makhachkala’s first elected mayor in 1998. An assassination attempt in 1993 left him wheelchair-bound.

Based on reporting by ITAR-TASS and RIA Novosti