MOSCOW, April 11 - RAPSI. Former Magnitogorsk Vice-Mayor Vitaly Sidorenko was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $33,700 for extorting $91,000 from a businessman, the Prosecutor General's Office reported on Tuesday.

In 2008, the city official offered the businessman a land plot for commercial construction in Magnitogorsk in exchange for property worth 10 million rubles ($337,400).

Later, Sidorenko and his accomplices offered the businessman another land plot in the city for constructing a hotel. They demanded five million rubles ($168,700) for support in the deal.

The police detained Sidorenko and his accomplices in September 2009 after they received 2.7 million rubles ($91,100) from the businessman. Sidorenko was dismissed from his office during the investigation.