Defense of Kazakhstani student Azamat Tazhayakov, who is being tried for obstructing the investigation of the terrorist attack during the Boston Marathon, has requested to withdraw all charges from him, Tengrinews reports citing Azamat's father Amir Ismagulov.
Defense of Kazakhstani student Azamat Tazhayakov, who is being tried for obstructing the investigation of the terrorist attack during the Boston Marathon, has requested to withdraw all charges from him, Tengrinews reports citing Azamat's father Amir Ismagulov.
Azamat Tazhayakov and his friend Dias Kadyrbayev, two students from Kazakhstan, were arrested in Boston on April 20, 2013.
According to Ismagulov, during the process, the lawyers were able to convince the Supreme Court that the evidence collected was not sufficient to charge the students with obstructing justice and destroying evidences. According to the investigators, the students threw away Dzhokhar Tasrnayev’s flash drive and laptop.
Father of Azamat Tazhayakov said that the lawyers had written a petition to the court asking to drop the charges against his son. However, according to Ismagulov, the prosecutor's office instead promised to present new charges. It is not yet clear which ones.
Ismagulov said that his son had been under arrest for almost two years. He was hopeful that this time would be enough as punishment and Tazhayakov would be deported to Kazakhstan. In this case, according to Ismagulov, Dias Kadyrbayev would get a similar ruling.
Earlier it was reported that Azamat Tazhayakov intended to testify against the main suspect of the terrorist attack during the Boston marathon Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. According to the lawyer, he had a few "small discussions" with a representative of the prosecutor's office about the possible participation of Azamat Tazhayakov in the trial of Tsarnaev, which is scheduled for the first half of 2015. However, they had not reached an agreement.
Reporting by Dmitry Khegai, writing by Dinara Urazova, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina