MOSCOW, June 10 (RAPSI) - Mayor of Makhachkala, Dagestan Said Amirov, who is accused of having ordered the killing of a police investigator in 2011, has asked the court to release him from custody and place him under house arrest at a Moscow apartment, Izvestia daily reports on Monday.

According to his attorneys, Amirov's 200 sq m luxury five-room apartment will better suit his health needs than the Lefortovo remand center where he has been placed to await trial.

Lawyer Mark Kruter has already filed the motion with the Basmanny District Court. However, the court may reject it, particularly as the property is not registered as belonging to Amirov, Izvestia writes.

"We are asking the court to release Mr Amirov on bail (the amount to be established by the court) or place him under house arrest, rather than custody. We also propose using an apartment owned by Amirov's relatives for his house arrest," lawyer Alkhaz Kaziyev told Izvestia.

Amirov has been the mayor of Makhachkala, the capital of the southern Russian region of Dagestan, since 1998. He was arrested on June 1 and transported to Moscow, where he was taken into custody on suspicion of ordering the murder of investigator Arsen Gadzhibekov. Amirov denies the charges.

On June 4, murder charges were officially brought against him.

The investigators believe that Amirov ordered the assassination, which was organized by Magomed Abdulgalimov, assistant city prosecutor of Kizlyar with accomplices, Deputy Mayor of Kaspiysk Yusup Dzhaparov and Kirovsky District police investigator Magomed Akhmedov. The murder was committed by Magomed Kadiyev, the Investigative Committee claims.

The authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with this case and do not rule out that more suspects may be involved. Amirov appealed a decision by Moscow's Basmanny District Court to detain him.

Amirov, a long-serving member of the ruling United Russia party, won the title of Russia's best mayor in a contest in late April.

Gadzhibekov, chief of the investigation department in Makhachkala's Sovetsky District, was shot dead near his home as he was getting out of his car. He had worked on a number of crimes, including the 2010 terror attack in Kizlyar that killed 10 and injured 270.