Chisinau Airport shooting: 9 border police disciplined, chief reprimanded
Nine employees of the border police at the Chisinau International Airport have been disciplined following an investigation into a deadly shooting, Moldova's Interior Minister Adrian Efros announced on Monday.
In addition, the head of the General Inspectorate of the Border Police, Rosian Vasiloi, was reprimanded, and the minister said he would propose the dismissal of the secretary of state responsible for security and public order at a government meeting.
The investigation committee identified a number of shortcomings and violations, including:
- The inadequate level of development and implementation of policies in the field of aviation security and public order.
- The lack of regulations on how to manage specific and crisis situations and how to ensure aviation security and public order at the airport.
- The defective organisational and operational management of the border police sector.
- The insufficient equipment of the sector.
The minister also said that the concessionaire company that reconstructed the airport terminal had deprived the border police sector of the room intended for the operational and command unit, and had not arranged specialised spaces for interviewing and placing persons who were not authorised to enter the country.
In the meantime, several measures have been taken to prevent such cases. These include:
- Organising the service at the airport in three shifts.
- Doubling the patrol and operational response teams in the vicinity of the Chisinau International Airport.
- Establishing temporary posts of special teams from the BPDS "Fulger", IGP, BDS and IGC.
- Arranging a waiting area for foreigners who require additional control for authorization or non-authorization of crossing.
- Developing and conducting a specialized training course in the field of special intervention tactics and the application of special means.
The shooting took place on June 30, when a foreign citizen who was denied entry to the Republic of Moldova fatally shot two employees of the security forces: a border police officer and an airport security employee. The attacker was a 43-year-old citizen of Tajikistan, who also died a few days later in hospital, after several wounds sustained in shootouts with the security forces.
July 4 was declared a national day of mourning to commemorate the two victims.
The authorities have said that they are committed to ensuring the security of the Chisinau International Airport and will take all necessary measures to prevent such incidents from happening again.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
