Boston Marathon bomb suspect's varsity mates in dock for cover-up
Source: Agencies |
May 3, 2013, Friday
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THREE university friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were arrested and accused of trying to protect him by going into his dorm room and getting rid of a backpack filled with hollowed-out fireworks three days after the deadly attack.
The three 19-year-olds, including two born in Kazakhstan, were not accused of any role in the bombing itself. But in a footnote in the court papers outlining the charges, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that about a month before the tragedy, Tsarnaev told two of them that he knew how to make a bomb.
Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, both of whom came to the United States from Kazakhstan, were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice by concealing and destroying evidence. Robel Phillipos, who graduated from a Cambridge, Massachusetts, high school with Tsarnaev, was charged with lying to investigators about the visit to Tsarnaev's room.
According to the FBI account, just hours after surveillance-camera photos of the Boston Marathon suspects were flashed around the world on April 18, Tsnarnaev's friends suspected he was one of the bombers and removed the backpack along with a laptop from Tsarnaev's room at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
One of them later threw the backpack in the garbage, and it wound up in a landfill, where it was discovered by law enforcement officers last week, authorities said.
In the backpack were fireworks that had been emptied of their gunpowder.
The lawyers for the Kazakh students said their clients had nothing to do with the bombing and were just as shocked by the crime as everyone else. Phillipos' attorney, Derege Demissie, said outside court: "The only allegation is he made a misrepresentation."
At a court appearance, the Kazakh students did not request bail and will be held for another hearing on May 14. Phillipos was held for a hearing on Monday.
If convicted, Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov could get up to five years in prison and a US$250,000 fine. Phillipos faces a maximum of eight years and a US$250,000 fine.
Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded on April 15 when two bombs exploded near the finish line.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died after a gunfight with police days later. His 19-year-old brother was captured and lies in a prison hospital. Their mother has said the allegations against them are lies. The brothers, ethnic Chechens born in southern Russia, had lived in the US for more than a decade.
Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov have been in jail for more than a week on allegations they were in violation of their student visas, one because he was skipping classes, the other because he was no longer enrolled. All three men charged on Wednesday began attending UMass with Tsarnaev in 2011, according to the FBI.
The three 19-year-olds, including two born in Kazakhstan, were not accused of any role in the bombing itself. But in a footnote in the court papers outlining the charges, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that about a month before the tragedy, Tsarnaev told two of them that he knew how to make a bomb.
Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, both of whom came to the United States from Kazakhstan, were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice by concealing and destroying evidence. Robel Phillipos, who graduated from a Cambridge, Massachusetts, high school with Tsarnaev, was charged with lying to investigators about the visit to Tsarnaev's room.
According to the FBI account, just hours after surveillance-camera photos of the Boston Marathon suspects were flashed around the world on April 18, Tsnarnaev's friends suspected he was one of the bombers and removed the backpack along with a laptop from Tsarnaev's room at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
One of them later threw the backpack in the garbage, and it wound up in a landfill, where it was discovered by law enforcement officers last week, authorities said.
In the backpack were fireworks that had been emptied of their gunpowder.
The lawyers for the Kazakh students said their clients had nothing to do with the bombing and were just as shocked by the crime as everyone else. Phillipos' attorney, Derege Demissie, said outside court: "The only allegation is he made a misrepresentation."
At a court appearance, the Kazakh students did not request bail and will be held for another hearing on May 14. Phillipos was held for a hearing on Monday.
If convicted, Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov could get up to five years in prison and a US$250,000 fine. Phillipos faces a maximum of eight years and a US$250,000 fine.
Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded on April 15 when two bombs exploded near the finish line.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died after a gunfight with police days later. His 19-year-old brother was captured and lies in a prison hospital. Their mother has said the allegations against them are lies. The brothers, ethnic Chechens born in southern Russia, had lived in the US for more than a decade.
Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov have been in jail for more than a week on allegations they were in violation of their student visas, one because he was skipping classes, the other because he was no longer enrolled. All three men charged on Wednesday began attending UMass with Tsarnaev in 2011, according to the FBI.
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