Lawsuits against Dagestani officials have created problems for bona fide property owners.

Following the prosecutor's office's demand that assets belonging to associates of former Makhachkala Mayor Said Amirov and Dagestan State Secretary Magomed-Sultan Magomedov be seized, real estate belonging to individuals unrelated to the former officials was seized. One of them faced the risk of property seizure.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," in September, the Prosecutor General's Office filed a lawsuit demanding the seizure of land plots, residential and commercial properties belonging to former Dagestan State Secretary Magomed-Sultan Magomedov and his relatives. The agency estimated the value of 53 properties located in Dagestan (mostly Makhachkala), Stavropol Krai (Pyatigorsk and Yessentuki), and Moscow at 500 million rubles.

Late in the evening of December 19, Makhachkala lawyer and activist Arsen Magomedov reported on his Telegram channel that the Prosecutor General's Office's demands had extended to innocent people.

"This month, we had to deal with two major trials involving lawsuits filed by the Prosecutor General's Office against the families of S.D. Amirov and M.B. Magomedov (the former Secretary of State). During these trials, prosecutors are actively trying to transfer to the state's purview all property acquired, in their opinion, in violation of anti-corruption legislation. Given the scale of the stated demands (more than a hundred properties), it is not surprising "That sometimes people who are difficult to classify as belonging to these tukhums [families] end up in this court," he wrote.

In one case, "the client acquired the property after it had already been sold at public auction during the bankruptcy of one of Amirov's relatives," the lawyer explained.

One of them also faces a claim for foreclosure on the property.

"In another, the client did not acquire anything, but because he lived in a shared courtyard (of which there are many in the center of old Makhachkala), he ended up as a shared owner of a property that was also owned by one of the Magomedovs. Neither of them, as I have already said, have any connection to influential families, but their properties were seized by the court at the request of the prosecutor's office. One of them also faces a claim for foreclosure on "real estate," the publication states.

By law, the prosecutor's office must independently prove a connection between corruption violations and the acquisition of property, Arsen Magomedov noted.

"However, I believe it is right for my clients to be proactive in this case. For example, in the case of the old courtyard, to present documents to the court proving that the client lived and owned property in that courtyard since the Soviet era, long before the main defendants became officials and acquired property there. Moreover, to provide the court with evidence of a (previous) construction dispute between the client and a member of one of the families. In the case of property acquisition at auction, to present all documents related to that auction, as well as proof of the client's own funds for the purchase," he wrote.

The lawyer noted the "rather balanced position" of the representative of the Prosecutor General's Office who participated in the hearing. "He stated that the prosecutor must present evidence of property owners' involvement in corruption schemes, and the court must evaluate it, including for the purpose of protecting the rights of bona fide purchasers. This approach has strengthened our clients' confidence; I hope it will be implemented in practice," the publication notes.

As a reminder, former Makhachkala Mayor Said Amirov is serving his sentence in a penal colony for life-sentenced prisoners in the Orenburg Region. On August 27, 2015, a court sentenced him to life imprisonment for organizing murders, banditry, and terrorism. The Supreme Court of Russia upheld the sentence. The "Caucasian Knot" published a report entitled "The Said Amirov Case".

In December 2017, on the eve of the Amirov court hearing, the "Caucasian Knot" conducted an audit of the former empire of the former mayor of Makhachkala. Among the assets included in Amirov's empire were the Oktyabr movie theater in central Moscow, the construction business in Makhachkala, Makhachkala public transportation, shares in the Makhachkala power grid and water utility, the market on the premises of the Dagelektromash plant, the Vostochny clothing market, the market in the Atrium shopping center, the Tsumadinsky wholesale market, the Kolizey shopping center, the Oktyabr and Rossiya movie theater buildings, and the stretch of land between Makhachkala and Kaspiysk.