According to legal representatives of the three college friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who allegedly was behind the April 15 bombing at the Boston Marathon, will be briefing a judge regarding their readiness for a June trial. The three, said Reuters, are facing charges for interfering with the investigation on Tsarnaev regarding what was viewed as the the largest mass-casualty attack that happened in the US since the September 11, 2011 attacks.
Kazakh exchange students Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, and Robel Phillipos of Cambridge, Massachusetts will be facing charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy for removing Tsarnaev's bag, which reportedly contained materials in connection to the bombing. The news agency said all three students had submitted not guilty pleas.
US District Judge Douglas Woodlock was said to have rejected the delay of their trial, which was petitioned by two of the three defendants alongside federal prosecutors on the grounds that the case was complex and that both camps needed more time to prepare. Earlier, Douglas had told attorneys to focus on the evidence that supported the obstruction of justice charges against Kadyrbayev, Tazhayakov and Phillipos.
Prosecutors had said that after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation published photos of the suspects of the Boston Marathon bombing, the three contacted Tsarnaev, of which the latter told them to get anything that they wanted in his dorm room at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
According to Reuters, Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov could be sentenced up to 25 years in prison or may be deported if they get convicted. Phillipos, on the other hand, could get up to 16 years in prison.
Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan allegedly planted bombs at the Boston Marathon, killing 3 people and injuring 264 in the process. Tsarnaev himself is awaiting a trial that would begin on November 3 and could get a death penalty once convicted, Reuters said. Tsarnaev had also pleaded not guilty to the act of terrorism and charges stemming from the police manhunt that led him to run over his brother and leave him for dead.
