DUSHANBE -- Authorities in Tajikistan on July 1 said the man who allegedly opened fire and killed two security personnel at Moldova’s main international airport is a Tajik national who is suspected of being in an “organized criminal group” that is believed to have kidnapped a bank official a week ago.
Moldovan authorities said on June 30 that the 43-year-old Tajik man shot and killed a border police officer and an airport security employee with a pistol taken from a border officer at Chisinau International Airport after he was refused entry into the small southeastern European nation.
On July 1, Tajikistan’s Prosecutor-General's Office alleged that the detainee, identified as Rustam Ashurov, was a member of a crime group, which kidnapped the deputy chairman of a Tajik bank in Dushanbe on June 23.
Prosecutors charge that Ashurov, “after committing this crime, fled to the Republic of Moldova through the Republic of Turkey in order to subsequently hide in the countries of the European Union.”
After he was refused entry to Moldova, according to authorities in both countries, the suspect “grabbed a pistol from one of the law-enforcement officers of the Chisinau airport, shot two, and took several people hostage.”
Security personnel fired back at the man, wounding him before taking him under arrest.
Authorities said Ashurov had arrived in Moldova on a flight from Istanbul. It is not known how he left Tajikistan before arriving in Turkey.
Prior to the incident, Tajik authorities had not named the suspects in the abduction of bank official Shuhrat Ismatulloev, 49.
SEE ALSO: Deputy Chairman Of Tajikistan's Oriyonbank Suspected AbductedIn Chisinau, the head of the General Police Inspectorate, Viorel Cernauteanu, told reporters that local authorities were unaware of the suspect's background before refusing him entry.
"Only after the incident at the airport...did we contact the authorities of Tajikistan," he said. "Only then were we told that he was the subject of interest in a case in Tajikistan."
Acting Prosecutor-General Ion Munteanu said Chisinau plans to charge and try the suspect in Moldova since the actions occurred in the country.
Following the incident, the airport was evacuated and flights delayed, but officials reported on July 1 that operations were back to normal.
The airport security officer who was killed was identified as Igor Ciofu, 40 years old and a father of three. He had been working at the airport since 2022 after retiring from the State Security and Protection Service.
Tensions are high in pro-West Moldova following Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, with fears that Moscow could expand the war to Moldova, where up to 1,500 Russian troops are based in the breakaway pro-Moscow Transdniester region.
The Moldovan government has been critical of Russian aggression in Ukraine, with President Maia Sandu saying in May 2022 that Crimea, the Donbas, and Kyiv are all part of Ukraine.
Moldovan security forces have sought to block potential Russian fighters from arriving in the country, although there was no immediate indication of the suspect’s intentions in traveling to Moldova.
Following the incident, Sandu said that "state institutions are on heightened alert, police and law-enforcement bodies are mobilized throughout Moldova."