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

Ion Munteanu also said that the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) has filed a criminal case for murder with aggravating circumstances, while no case has been opened for terrorism.

Asked by journalists what the attacker was risking, he said that Moldovan law also provided for life imprisonment.

“He is charged with murder with aggravating circumstances for which the penalty includes life imprisonment. So there are steps or stages of the criminal prosecution, at the current stage there are certain experts to be conducted, a good number of witnesses are being heard. Video footage from surveillance cameras is being examined. We are in constant communication with colleagues in Tajikistan (…). He cannot be extradited. At the time the crime was committed on the territory of Moldova. So he is to be tried or prosecuted in Moldova,” the acting prosecutor general said in a press briefing.

The prosecutor also noted that everything happened in a few seconds, and after the moves, the foreign citizen is a physically well-prepared person. According to him, there is no confirmed information that he was affiliated with military groups.

On Friday, June 30, a serious incident took place at the Chisinau airport. Unhappy that he was refused entry to Moldova, a man coming from Turkey attacked a border policeman, took his gun and shot him. The attacker then shot another person, an airport security employee. Both victims died.

Law enforcement officers immediately responded to the scene. Passengers were evacuated from the airport and flights were delayed. About an hour after the first shots were fired, the attacker was captured by employees of the Lightning Special Purpose Police Brigade. The Chisinau prosecutor’s office has opened a criminal case.

The man who shot dead two people at Chisinau International Airport is Rustam Ashurov Karimovich, a citizen of Tajikistan, born on 25 March 1980, resident of Dushanbe, who, before committing the double murder in Chisinau, was part of a “criminal group” that kidnapped a first vice-president of the bank “Orienbank” Tajikistan. According to the Dushanbe Prosecutor General’s Office, on 23 June 2023, at 10:10 p.m., one week after the incident at the Chisinau airport, Ismatulloev Shuhrat Abdugafforovich, first vice-president of “Orienbank” Tajikistan, was abducted by an “organised criminal group” from a street in Dushanbe.

At the same time, the Dushanbe Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement that the man had “taken several people hostage”, information which was denied by the Chisinau authorities.