Rustam Ashurov, a citizen of the Republic of Tajikistan, who fatally shot a border policeman and a security inspector at Chisinau International Airport on Friday 30 June, was sentenced in November 2012 to 13 years in prison for armed robbery. Ashurov was pardoned in 2019, according to sources of Ziarul de Gardă. Thousands of prisoners in Tajikistan were released from the sanctions that year.

ZdG has analyzed several open sources of information and brings you relevant details about the Tajik citizen who committed the double murder at Chisinau airport.

Rustam Ashurov participated in an armed robbery in Dushanbe

In June 2012, Tajik law enforcement officers detained two people who robbed a currency exchange employee in Dushanbe. At the time, the Tajik Ministry of Interior announced that “unknown persons” had attacked one Sunatullo Faizulloyev, a currency exchange employee, and his companion Khurshed Saidov. At the time of the attack, the victims were inside a Toyota Corolla. Threatening them with a Makarov pistol, the criminals allegedly made off with a sports bag containing $95,000.

The criminals fled in a Mark automobile. They then abandoned the vehicle and, at gunpoint, stole a Daewoo Nexia and fled with it.

On 4 July 2012, Dushanbe police officers detained Rustam Ashurov, a resident of Dushanbe, and Kutbiddin Gafurovich Sodikov, a resident of Rudaki, on suspicion of committing the crime of armed robbery. Law enforcement officers seized a Makarov pistol with seven bullets and $15,000 from Rustam Ashurov and 395,000 Russian rubles from Kutbiddin Sodikov.

Rustam Ashurov sentenced to 13 years in prison

On 22 November 2012, a court in Dushanbe sentenced Ashurov and Sodikov to 13 years in prison and Oripov to 15 years in prison for armed robbery and illegal possession of weapons.

Ashurov kidnapped a first vice-president of a Tajik bank

The Prosecutor General’s Office in Dushanbe reports that on 23 June 2023, at 22:10, one week before the incident at the airport in Chisinau, Ismatulloev Shuhrat Abdugafforovich, first vice-president of “Orienbank” (a bank in Tajikistan, ed.), was kidnapped by an “organised criminal group” from a street in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.

On that very day, the Tajik authorities opened a criminal case and “a task force was set up to investigate the crime and bring the perpetrators to justice”. Rustam Ashurov is one of the main suspects in the case. According to the prosecutor’s office, Ashurov fled to Moldova via Turkey after committing the crime.

The attackers forced Ismatulloev Shuhrat Abdugafforovich into a black Hyundai Sonata car. The car was last seen in a neighbourhood known as Chagatai, and has not been seen since. ZdG sources say that some participants in the kidnapping of the banker have reportedly been detained, apart from Ashurov.

Meanwhile, Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry has promised a $30,000 reward for anyone who provides information that will help uncover the crime, guaranteeing their safety and anonymity and protecting their rights as required by law, asiaplustj.info notes.

Earlier, Radio Liberty Tajikistan obtained a document stating that the kidnapping had been planned in advance. This is evidenced, in particular, by the fact that a Hyundai Sonata car with tinted windows was seen on 10 June, between 15:00 and 18:00, near the house of Shuhrat Ismatulloev. Eyewitnesses told the source that the number of police officers increased at the western and northern gates of the capital.

Banker Shukhrat Ismatulloev, 49, is the brother of Dilshod Ismatullozoda, former CEO of Tajik Air airline, and is a close associate of Hasan Asadullozoda, chairman of Orienbank and brother-in-law of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.

Ashurov, amnestied in 2019 by Tajikistan’s president, kidnapped the partner of the head of state’s daughter

Rustam Ashurov was granted amnesty in 2019 by Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon.

The kidnapped person was working in the management of this bank alongside Zarina Rahmon, the youngest daughter of Tajikistan’s president, according to information published on the Orienbank website. Rustam Ashurov has also caused great problems for the bank where Rahmon’s daughter works. Members of the group, according to ZdG sources, reportedly admitted taking money from Ismatulloev Shuhrat Abdugafforovich, then kidnapping and killing him, although there is no official record of this.

Zarina Rahmon was appointed as deputy chairwoman of the financial institution Orienbank in early 2017. The bank is run by her uncle Hasan Asadullozoda, a prominent businessman, Radio Liberty Tajikistan notes.

Rahmon has been Tajikistan’s unchanged president since 1994.

Rustam Ashurov, the Tajik national who shot dead two people at Chisinau International Airport, cannot be extradited from Moldova. Acting Prosecutor General Ion Munteanu said the foreigner will be tried in Moldova, where he committed the crime.