Azamat Tazhayakov meets with father in U.S. jail

Kazakhstan student Azamat Tazhayakov accused of obstructing justice in the Boston bombings case met with his father, CNN reports. The student’s father Amir Ismagulov said that he had spoken with his son for 40 minutes last week. According to Ismagulov, his son didn’t know he was doing anything wrong when he took Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's backpack and notebook. He said that “teenagers sometimes do stupid things” and his son was “in the wrong place, at the wrong time and with the wrong people”. Ismagulov expressed hope that the U.S. government would find out what happened and let Tazhayakov go. According to the father, Tazhayakov always admired the United States and wanted to study engineering there to work in oil business. Ismagulov said that his son had no intention of helping Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnayev. The student told his father that if he and Dias Kadyrbayev had wanted to help Tsarnayev, they would have buried his backpack in the ground instead of throwing it away. The investigators found the backpack filled with fireworks in the garbage dump after a two-day search. Azamat Tazhayakov and another Kazakhstan student Dias Kadyrbayev were arrested for alleged violation of U.S. immigration regulations on April 20. They were detained by the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement at the Suffolk County House of Corrections in Boston. But no visa regime violation charges have been presented to them so far. Instead, after the FBI started looking into Tsarnaev's connections they were found to have communicated with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in text messages, and were presented with the criminal charges of obstructing investigation by tempering with evidences. They are not suspected of being involved in the bombings or the preparations. They knew the younger Tsarnaev because they were classmates and spoke the same language - Russian - that is not that common in the United States. They heedlessly took a backpack of fireworks and a laptop from Tsarnaev's dormitory after Dzhokhar texted them inviting them over. Dzhokhar told them he no longer needed the things and they, most likely had no knowledge of those being evidence in the Boston bombings case. Their lawyers said they were shocked to find out their friend was involved and were fully cooperating with the authorities. Their fathers said none of them were radical Islamists or even committed Muslims. None of them had any criminal record, or all their teachers' reports said they were normal teens. Two bombs exploded one after another near the finish line of the Boston Marathon near Copley Square on April 15, turning the celebration into a bloody scene of destruction. The attack claimed 3 lives and injured 144 people. The U.S. police apprehended the first suspect Tamerlan Tsarnayev in Watertown. He later died in the hospital because of numerous injuries. The operation on apprehension of his brother Dzhohar lasted for 15 hours. According to media, Dzhohar Tsarnayev was wounded in the neck and leg and was hospitalized.