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Boston police announce three arrests in marathon bombing investigation Boston police announce three arrests in marathon bombing investigation
(35 minutes later)
Boston police said three more people have been detained in the investigation into the bombing of the city's marathon last month, in which three people died and more than 260 were injured.Boston police said three more people have been detained in the investigation into the bombing of the city's marathon last month, in which three people died and more than 260 were injured.
The Boston police department announced on its Twitter feed on Wednesday that "three additional suspects" had been into custody in relation to the marathon bombing. In a later statement, the police quashed fears of any risk of further terror attacks by saying "there is no threat to the public". The Boston police department announced on its Twitter feed on Wednesday that "three additional suspects" had been into custody in relation to the marathon bombing. In a later statement, the police played down fears of any risk of further attacks by saying "there is no threat to the public".
The arrests are believed to have been made by the FBI, which hours after the marathon blasts on 15 April took charge of the investigation. Reports suggested that the charges related to making false statements to the authorities and hiding evidence after the bombings had taken place, and not to any participation in the planning of the attacks themselves. Two of those detained were reported to be college friends of the surviving Boston bombing suspect, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The two men, Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, came to the US from Kazakhstan, while the third detainee was said to be a US citizen.
In the days after the bombings, officers detained and questioned three college friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the surviving suspect of the marathon bombings, in New Bedford. The three were released, but two of them, Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, were later taken back into custody and held by immigration authorities, accused of having overstayed their student visas. The two men, who were classmates of Tsarnaev at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, are from Kazakhstan. Reports suggested that they would be charged with making false statements to the authorities and hiding evidence after the bombings had taken place. They are not accused of taking part in the planning of the attacks.
They appeared in an immigration court on Wednesday morning to face the visa violation charges, and during the hearing it was revealed that Kadyrbayev was expelled from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth for low grades. Tazhayakov is still enrolled at the university. In the days after the bombings, law enforcement officers detained and questioned three college friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, including Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev, in New Bedford. The three were released, but the Kazakh pair were later taken back into custody and held by immigration authorities, accused of having overstayed their student visas.
The two men were shown in a widely-published photograph standing beside Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Times Square, New York. Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev, classmates of Tsarnaev at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, appeared in an immigration court on Wednesday morning to face the visa violation charges. During the hearing it was revealed that Kadyrbayev was expelled from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth for low grades. Tazhayakov is still enrolled at the university.
A lawyer for one of them, Robert Stahl, a New Jersey-based attorney who specialises in clients from the former USSR, said he would release a statement about the arrests after charges had been read out in federal court in Boston, possibly as early as Wednesday afternoon. Linda Cristello, a Boston attorney who represented the pair at the immigration court hearing, told the Associated Press that her clients now face separate federal charges and have an afternoon court appearance related to the bombing case.
"These kids are just as shocked and horrified about what happened as everyone else," Kadyrbayev's lawyer, Stahl told the Huffington Post last week. Christina DiIorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for US attorney Carmen Ortiz, told reporters gathered outside the federal court in Boston that the charges were expected to be unsealed Wednesday afternoon when the accused make their initial appearance before a magistrate judge.
The two Kazak men were shown in a widely-published photograph standing beside Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Times Square, New York.
Robert Stahl, Aa lawyer for Kadyrbayev, said he would release a statement about the arrests after charges had been read out in federal court in Boston, possibly as early as Wednesday afternoon.
Stahl, a New Jersey-based attorney who specialises in clients from the former USSR, told the Huffington Post last week: "These kids are just as shocked and horrified about what happened as everyone else."
In the two weeks since the bombing, more than 1,000 FBI agents have been dedicated to the task of finding out how the bombings were planned and crucially whether there was a wider network of support behind the bombers. In the fall-out from the attacks, Dzhokhar's elder brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 26, was killed in a police shoot-out.In the two weeks since the bombing, more than 1,000 FBI agents have been dedicated to the task of finding out how the bombings were planned and crucially whether there was a wider network of support behind the bombers. In the fall-out from the attacks, Dzhokhar's elder brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 26, was killed in a police shoot-out.
Early indications from the inquiry have pointed to the brothers acting largely alone, though federal agents continue to look closely at a six-months trip taken last year by Tamerlan Tsarnaev to the troubled region of Dagestan in Russia where his parents live.
/> 		Early indications from the inquiry have pointed to the brothers acting largely alone, though federal agents continue to look closely at a six-months trip taken last year by Tamerlan Tsarnaev to the troubled region of Dagestan in Russia where his parents live.
On Tuesday, a lawyer for the widow of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Katherine Russell, said she has declined to claim his body and instead authorised his family to collect it.
Amato DeLuca, who is representing Katherine Russell, said in a statement 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 the Tsarnaev family.
An uncle of the brothers, Ruslan Tsarni, told the Associated Press that the family would take the body. "Of course, family members will take possession of the body," said Tsarni, of Montgomery Village, Maryland. "We'll do it. We will do it. A family is a family." He did not give any further details of the arrangements.
DeLuca said Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow met law enforcement officials "for many hours over the past week" and would continue cooperating. FBI agents on Monday visited her parents' home in North Kingstown, Rhode Island where she has been staying, and carried away several bags.
Terrel Harris, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said Tuesday evening that the state had not yet received Russell's request to release her husband's body.
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