Attorneys for two of the men charged with obstructing the investigation into last month's fatal Boston Marathon bombing say their clients deny any wrongdoing. Deborah Gembara reports.
THREE college 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 - Kazkh nationals Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakovwere and American Robel Phillipos - are not accused of any role in the bombing itself.
But in a footnote in the court papers outlining the charges, the FBI 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 U.S. 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.
Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev waived their right to bail in court and agreed to voluntary detention.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, right, on a visit to Times Square in 2012 with Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, who were arrested and charged with covering up for the Boston Marathon bombers. Picture: Fox News.
Their next hearing is scheduled for May 14.
Phillipos, is charged with making false statements to federal investigators. He awaits a court appearance.
Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov, Kazakh nationals in the United States on a student visa, face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $US250,000 ($A242,000) fine, the Justice Department said.
Phillipos faces up to eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
According to the FBI account, just hours after surveillance-camera photos of the Boston Marathon suspects were flashed around the world April 18,
Three men accused of providing aid to Boston Marathon suspects have been arrested. Fox News
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 May 14.
This courtroom sketch shows signed by artist Jane Flavell Collins defendant Robel Phillipos appearing in front of Federal Magistrate Marianne Bowler at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston. Phillipos, and two other college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, were arrested and charged with removing a backpack containing hollowed-out fireworks from Tsarnaev's dorm room. (AP Photo/Jane Flavell Collins)
Phillipos was held for a hearing on Monday. If convicted, Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov could get up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Phillipos faces a maximum of eight years behind bars and a $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.
Investigators have not said whether the pressure cooker bombs used in the attacks were made with gunpowder extracted from fireworks.
This courtroom sketch signed by artist Jane Flavell Collins shows defendants Dias Kadyrbayev, left, and Azamat Tazhayakov appearing in front of Federal Magistrate Marianne Bowler at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston. The two college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and another man, were arrested and charged with removing a backpack containing hollowed-out fireworks from Tsarnaev's dorm room. (AP Photo/Jane Flavell Collins)
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 Wednesday began attending UMass with Tsarnaev in 2011, according to the FBI.
Tazhayakov was allowed to return to the US from Kazakhstan in January despite not having a valid student visa, a federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
His student-visa status had been terminated because he was academically dismissed from the university, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The FBI said that before Tsarnaev's roommate let the three friends into the room, Kadyrbayev received a text message from Tsarnaev that read: "I'm about to leave if you need something in my room take it,'' according to the FBI.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was reportedly refused entry to Saudi Arabia in 2001. Picture: AP/Julia Malakie
When Tazhayakov learned of the message, "he believed he would never see Tsarnaev alive again,'' the FBI said in the affidavit.
It was not clear from the court papers whether authorities believe that was an instruction from Tsarnaev to destroy evidence.
Once inside Tsarnaev's room, the men noticed a backpack containing fireworks, which had been opened and emptied of gunpowder, the FBI said.
The FBI said that Kadyrbayev knew when he saw the fireworks that Tsarnaev was involved in the bombings and decided to remove the backpack "in order to help his friend Tsarnaev avoid trouble.''
Kadyrbayev also decided to remove Tsarnaev's laptop "because he did not want Tsarnaev's roommate to think he was stealing or behaving suspiciously by just taking the backpack,'' the FBI said.
How did Boston terror suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev - whose mother was also on a terror database - slip through the cracks, despite warning signs?
After the three returned to Kadyrbayev's and Tazhayakov's apartment with the backpack and computer, they watched news reports featuring photographs of Tsarnaev.
The FBI said Kadyrbayev told authorities the three men then "collectively decided to throw the backpack and fireworks into the trash because they did not want Tsarnaev to get into trouble.''
Kadyrbayev said he placed the backpack and fireworks along with trash from the apartment into a large trash bag and threw it into a garbage bin near the men's apartment, according to court papers.
When the backpack was later found, inside it was a UMass-Dartmouth homework assignment sheet from a class Tsarnaev was taking, the FBI said.
The court papers do not say what happened to the laptop.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and TamerlanTsarnaev pictured at the Boston Marathon. (AP Photo/FBI)
In a footnote, the FBI said: "Tazhayakov also informed the FBI agents that while eating a meal with Dzhokhar and Kadrybayev approximately one month prior to the marathon bombing, Dzhokhar had explained to Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov that he knew how to make a bomb.''
Robert Stahl, an attorney for Kadyrbayev, said his client "absolutely denies the charges'' and didn't know that the backpack and fireworks were part of the bombing case.
Kadyrbayev is "just as shocked and horrified by the violence in Boston that took place as the rest of the community is,'' the lawyer said.
He also denied that Kadyrbayev instantly recognized Tsarnaev's photo, saying: "His first inkling came much later.''
Tazhayakov's lawyer, Harlan Protass, said Tazhayakov "feels horrible and was shocked to hear that someone he knew at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth was involved with the Boston Marathon bombing.''
Katherine Russell, the American wife of marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, leaves the house where he lived in Cambridge, the day after Tsarnaev, was killed in a shootout with police. Picture: Austral via William Farrington / Polaris
Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov lived at an off-campus apartment in New Bedford, about 60 miles south of Boston, and got around in a car registered to Kadyrbayev with a souvenir plate that read "Terrorista #1.'' The car was pictured on Tsarnaev's Twitter feed in March.
The plate was a gag gift from some of Kadyrbayev's friends, meant to invoke his penchant for late-night partying rather than his political sentiments, Kadyrbayev's lawyer said last week.
Michael McKeown, 20, attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School with Tsarnaev and Phillipos.
"He wasn't a stupid kid,'' the Boston University sophomore said of Phillipos. "I'm surprised he would do something this foolish.''
Saudi Arabia warned US about Tamerlan Tsarnaev
The mother of the two Boston bombing suspects, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, left, speaking at a news conference in Makhachkala, the southern Russian province of Dagestan.
The arrests came after it emerged Saudi Arabia reportedly sent a written warning to the US about Boston Marathon suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev last year and refused him entry to the country over security concerns.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wrote to the US Department of Homeland Security about the older Tsarnaev brother in 2012, a senior Saudi official says.
The official told the Daily Mail the warning was based on intelligence from Yemen and was separate to concerns raised by Russian intelligence.
He also revealed Tamerlan was refused an entry visa into Saudi Arabia for the Mecca pilgrimage in December 2011.
Russian agents placed the older suspect under surveillance during a six-month visit to southern Russia last year, then scrambled to find him when he suddenly disappeared after police killed a Canadian jihadist, a security official said.
The father of the two Boston bombing suspects, Anzor Tsarnaev speaks at a news conference in Makhachkala, the southern Russian province of Dagestan.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26 and his younger brother Dzhokhar are accused of carrying out the April 15 bombings at the Boston Marathon, which killed three and wounded more than 264 at one of the world's premier sporting events.
The Saudi official said the warning, which was also shared with the UK Government, was "very specific" and warned "something was going to happen in a major US city".
The "government-to-government" letter "did name Tamerlan specifically", the official told the Daily Mail.
An official from Homeland Security denied the department had received any such warning from Saudi Arabia.
"DHS has no knowledge of any communication from the Saudi government regarding information on the suspects in the Boston Marathon Bombing prior to the attack," an unnamed offical told the Daily Mail.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a shootout with police as he tried to flee the Boston area three days after the bombing.
Dzhokhar was wounded and captured, and now faces terror charges carrying a possible death sentence.
The Saudi official said the letter was sent by the Saudi Ministry of Interior in part so the US could inspect packages being sent to Tamerlan in the post.
"With Saudi Arabia it's always code red," he said.
"There's no code orange, or code yellow. Always red."
Tamerlan Tsarnaev's relatives will claim his body now that his wife has agreed to release it, an uncle said.
Tsarnaev, 26, has been at the medical examiner's office in Massachusetts since he died after a gunfight with authorities more than a week ago.
Amato DeLuca, the Rhode Island attorney for his widow, Katherine Russell, said on Tuesday that his client had just learned that the medical examiner was ready to release Tsarnaev's body and that she wants it released to his side of the family.
Police said Tsarnaev ran out of ammunition before his 19-year-old brother dragged his body under a vehicle while fleeing the scene. His cause of death has been determined but will not be made public until his remains are claimed.
"Of course, family members will take possession of the body," uncle Ruslan Tsarni of Maryland told The Associated Press on Tuesday night. "We'll do it. We will do it. A family is a family."
He would not elaborate. Tsarnaev's parents are still in Russia, but he has other relatives on his side of the family in the U.S., including Tsarni.
Tsarnaev's father, Anzor, announced plans last week to travel to the US in the hope of burying his elder son, but he said on Wednesday that those plans are off because he is suffering from bad headaches and high blood pressure. The 46-year-old Tsarnaev said he still hopes to go when he is feeling better.
Reports came as it was revealed the Tsarnaev family, including the suspected terrorists and their parents, benefited from more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded assistance - a bonanza ranging from cash and food stamps to housing from 2002 to 2012.
The state has handed over more than 500 documents to the 11-member House Post Audit and Oversight Committee, which Monday met for the first time and plans to call in officials from the Department of Transitional Assistance to testify.
"I can assure members of the public that this committee will actively review every single piece of information we can find because clearly the public has a substantial right to know what benefits, if any, this family or individuals accused of some horrific crimes were receiving,'' said state Rep. David Linsky, D-Natick, the committee's chairman.
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