Prosecutors Want 13 Years In Jail For Former Makhachkala Mayor

Prosecutors in Russia have asked a court to sentence the former mayor of Makhachkala, the capital of Russia's restive North Caucasus republic of Daghestan, to 13 years in jail.

Said Amirov is 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 was arrested in June 2013. He denies the charges.

His trial at the North Caucasus Regional Military Court in the city of Rostov-on-Don began on April 24.

Amirov, 60, became Makhachkala’s first elected mayor in 1998.

He has survived more than a dozen assassination attempts, one of which, in 1993, left him paralyzed.

Based on reporting by Interfax and ITAR-TASS