Moldova's prime minister accepts resignation of interior minister after fatal airport shooting

Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean says that he accepted the resignations of three ministers including the interior minister

Moldova’s prime minister said Friday that he accepted the resignations of three ministers, including the interior minister, which comes two weeks after a shooting at the country’s main international airport that left two security officers dead.

Prime Minister Dorin Recean said in a media briefing that Interior Minister Ana Revenco, the infrastructure and regional development minister, Lilia Dabija, and Science and Education Minister Anatolie Topal all handed in their resignations on Thursday, but he didn't say why they quit.

The opposition, however, had demanded that Revenco resign in the wake of a deadly shooting at Chisinau International Airport in Moldova’s capital on June 30, after a 43-year-old man from Tajikistan fatally shot two airport security workers after he was denied entry into the country.

The suspect, who had grabbed a guard’s weapon as officials escorted him away and then used it in the attack, later died of injuries he sustained when security forces apprehended him.

“It was an honor to serve the country,” Revenco wrote on Friday in a Facebook post, in which she praised her team “for having the courage to … keep peace and stability in the country and withstand multiple crises,” citing threats amid Russia's war in Ukraine, Moldova’s neighbor.

Recean thanked the three ministers for their tenures and said that he would propose on Monday a list of potential candidates to President Maia Sandu to fill the ministerial roles.