Two college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were indicted on Thursday in Boston on conspiracy to obstruct justice and for allegedly obstructing justice to slow the terrorist investigation.
The FBI alleges that Dias Kadyrbayey and Azamat Tazhayakov, both 19 and in-country since 2011, received text messages from Tsarnaev in the wake of the April 15 bombing attacks asking them to go to his University of Massachusetts Dartmouth college dorm room and “take what’s there,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
Specifically, the April 18 text stated: “If yu want yu can go to my room and take what’s there. Salam aleikum,” which is Arabic for “peace be upon you.”
The friends then went to Tsarnaev’s room and took his laptop, as well as a backpack filled with fireworks, a jar of Vaseline, a thumb drive and other items, the L.A. Times reported. The friends brought the items back to their own apartment in nearby New Bedford, and later dumped the backpack in an outside trash bin and made sure it was hauled away, investigators say. Police later found the items at a landfill.
They face charges of obstructing justice and of obstructing justice with full intent of impeding an official investigation. They could see 25 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. They could also face deportation, the L.A. Times reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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