A court in St. Petersburg on Thursday sentenced a former Russian lawmaker suspected of organizing a 1998 killing of popular liberal politician Galina Starovoitova to eight years in prison for extortion.
Mikhail Glushchenko, a former deputy for the far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, was arrested in 2009 over another killing five years previously.
Prosecutors say he extorted money and property worth an estimated $10 million from two businessmen in 2003-2004.
Glushchenko's lawyer said he was planning to appeal the jail sentence.
In 2004, a witness in the high-profile murder case of Galina Starovoitova said Glushchenko organized the killing.
Starovoitova, a deputy for the reformist Democratic Russia party, was shot dead in her apartment block in November 1998.
She had earlier announced her intention to run in Russia's 2000 presidential election.
Her death caused a public outcry in Russia and abroad, with former U.S. President Bill Clinton describing it as an assault on democratic values.
