Recently three college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarbaev were arrested and accused for removing a backpack containing fireworks emptied of gunpowder from Tsarnaev’s dorm room three-days after the attack in order to prevent Tsarbaev from getting into trouble. Both Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev have been arrested for conspiring to obstruct justice. Robel Phillipos has been charged for lying to integrators about visiting Tsarnaev’s room. The same backpack that was removed from the room was found on April 26th in a landfill by law enforcement officers. None of the three men have been accused of any direct involvement with the bombing.
On the night of April 18th, after the FBI had released photos of the bombing suspects all three friends suspected their friend was one of the bombers. Once entering Tsarnaev’s dorm room they uncovered a backpack that contained fireworks which had been opened and emptied of powder. Both Tsarnaev’s backpack and laptop were removed from the dorm room.
A court appearance for the three men is scheduled for today in the afternoon. Both Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev are not U.S. citizens and have been held in a county jail for more than a week on allegations that they violated their student visas. All men are accused of doing things after the bombing.
If convicted, Kadyrbayev and Tahayakov face five years in prison while Phillipos could be locked up for eight if found guilty.
On April 15th two bombs exploded thirteen seconds apart near the finish line. Three people were killed and around 183 people were injured.
