Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Friends Indicted
BOSTON (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Two friends of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were indicted Thursday for allegedly trying to throw away fireworks and other items police say they found in Tsarnaev's dorm room before his capture.
Authorities later found some of the items in a landfill, the federal indictment says.
Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, both 19, face charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice. The two, who shared an apartment in New Bedford, Mass., have been detained since they were charged in May. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison.
Arkady Bukh, an attorney for Tazhayakov, said his client did nothing wrong, and he's tried for the last several months to convince authorities to drop the charges.
"For me, this sounds like a witch hunt," he said. "And this is the same view (my) client has."
Kadyrbayev's attorney, Robert Stahl, said his client never knowingly took evidence from Tsarnaev's dorm room.
"My young client --- was shocked and horrified to learn that someone he knew was involved in the terrible Marathon bombing," he said.
Tsarnaev, 20, is accused in the April 15 blasts at the finish line of the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured more than 260. After the attack, officials said the two planned to come to New York City to detonate their remaining explosives in Times Square, but they were unable to carry out their attack.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured alive on April 19 after a massive manhunt. He has pleaded not guilty to 30 counts, including use of a weapon of mass destruction to kill. His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, an alleged co-conspirator, was killed in a shootout with police April 18.
Prosecutors say the Tsarnaevs, who are Muslim, carried out the attack to retaliate against the U.S. government for "killing innocent civilians," quoting a note written by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev shortly before his capture.
Tsarnaev, Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were all students at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
According to the indictment, Kadyrbayev later received a text message from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev suggesting that he go to Tsarnaev's "room and take what's there."
The indictment alleges that Kadyrbayev, Tazhayakov, and another conspirator, who was not named in the indictment, went to Tsarnaev's dorm room and removed several items, including Tsarnaev's laptop computer and a backpack containing fireworks. The indictment says they brought the items to Kadyrbayev's and Tazhayakov's apartment and later put some of them in a trash Dumpster.
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