Dagestani doctor charged with a police chief's murder

A Dagestani doctor was charged on Saturday with being an accessory to the 2010 murder of a local police chief, in a case that saw another doctor killed by police and which has already been dubbed a “doctors’ plot” in Russian social networks, RIA Novosti reports on Saturday.

“All accusations against my client are baseless and an appeal will be filed with the republic’s Supreme Court within 10 days,” Zaur Magomedov, defense lawyer for doctor Marat Gunashev, told RIA Novosti by phone from Makhachkala, the republic’s capital on Saturday.

The two doctors, Marat Gunashev and Shamil Gasanov, were detained on terrorism allegations in Russia’s restive North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on November 29. Their supporters claim the case was fabricated by a law enforcement agency that they view as untrustworthy and corrupt.

Gunashev was detained in the operating room and Gasanov was shot dead shortly after being taken into police custody.