The former mayor of the capital city of Russia's restive Dagestan region was convicted on Wednesday of plotting to assassinate a rival official by shooting down the man's plane with an anti-aircraft missile.
Said Amirov, who faces 13 years in prison, was the mayor of Makhachkala, in southern Russia, for 15 years before he was arrested over the assassination plot last year. He had been re-elected four times during his time at the post, and more than 15 documented attempts were made on his life.
In the fall of last year, prosecutors charged Amirov with plotting to shoot down the plane of the Dagestan Pension Fund's influential chairman, Sagid Murtazaliyev, and illegally acquiring a Strela-2M handheld rocket launcher to perform what prosecutors considered a "terrorist attack," state news agency ITAR-Tass reports.
Amirov's nephew, Yuruf Dzhaparov, the former deputy mayor of the southern city of Kaspiisk, was also found guilty of conspiring with his uncle. Prosecutors have requested that Dzhaparov be imprisoned for 11 years.
Amirov was also accused of organizing the 2011 assassination of one of his region's top investigators, Arsen Gadzhibekov.
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