The surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces a 30-count indictment by a federal grand jury charging him with using weapons of mass destruction and killing 4 people, according to The Boston Globe. The indictment alleges that Tsarnaev, had been motivated by an Al-Qaeda publication (specifically Inspire). He also allegedly left in a confession in the boat where he was captured in a Watertown Massachusetts backyard writing, "I don't like killing innocent people," but had been justified because of U.S. government actions abroad.
'The U.S. Government is killing our innocent civilians. I can't stand to see such evil go unpunished. We Muslims are one body, you hurt you hurt us all," Tsarnaev allegedly wrote. "Stop killing our innocent people, we will stop."
Seventeen of the charges carry the possibility of he death penalty; others carry the possibility of a life sentence. Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured in the twin blasts near the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15 in downtown Boston. Tsarnaev and his older brother Tamerlan planted the explosives. The authorities also say that they killed MIT police officer Sean Collier.
Tamerlan was killed after the shootout with police on April 19 in Watertown while Dzhokhar was arrested after he was found hiding in a boat in a backyard later that day.
The indictment alleges that before the bombing, Dzokhar downloaded several pieces of extremist Islamic propaganda from the Internet, including one that directed Muslims not to give their allegiances to governments that invade Muslim lands, and another by Anwar al-Awlaki, a senior operative in Al Qaeda's branch in Yemen who was killed in 2011 drone strike.
Charges also include "the use of a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death; bombing of a place of public use resulting in death, malicious destruction of property resulting in death, conspiracy, and use of a firearm during and in relation to a violent crime, federal prosecutors said in a statement," The Boston Globe reported.
Tsarnaev learned how to make the pressure cooker bombs used in the bombings from Volume 1 of "Inspire" magazine, news reports said. He also downloaded a book called, "Jihad and the Effects on Intention Upon It.'' Authorities said the book "glorifies martyrdom in the service of violent Jihad.''
