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ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — A court in St. Petersburg has sentenced a former Russian lawmaker to 17 years in prison for organizing the 1998 assassination of a leading politician.
Galina Starovoitova, one of the most prominent democratic leaders in St. Petersburg in post-Soviet Russia, was gunned down in 1998 outside her apartment. Starovoitova was a State Duma lawmaker and attempted to run in the 1996 presidential election before electoral authorities denied her registration.
Three men, including the one who the court said shot 52-year old Starovoitova, were convicted in 2005.
Former lawmaker Mikhail Glushchenko was convicted on Friday of organizing her murder. Glushchenko, who pleaded guilty, insisted that he organized the killing at the request of a powerful mafia leader who was threatening him. The man in question is in prison for racketeering.
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