Azamat Tazhayakov’s lawyer Matthew Meyers has asked the judge to question potential jury about they attitude to Muslims and ask other relevant questions to make sure none of them is biased against the Kazakhstani student accused of impeding investigation of the Boston bombing case in 2013, Tengrinews reports citing Novosti-Kazakhstan.
Azamat Tazhayakov’s lawyer Matthew Meyers has asked the judge to question potential jury about they attitude to Muslims and ask other relevant questions to make sure none of them is biased against the Kazakhstani student accused of impeding investigation of the Boston bombing case in 2013, Tengrinews reports citing Novosti-Kazakhstan.
The lawyer of the defendant also insisted that potential juries were asked whether they had any relatives or acquaintances injured in the Boston bombings.
Even though Tazhayakov is not accused of preparing or participating in the bombings, the lawyer wanted to eliminate any possible bias against Azamat that could arise from him having an Asian appearance, Kazakhstani nationality or studying in the same American university with the bombings case main suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnayev and meeting him on a number of occasions.
Earlier, Tazhayakov faced the court where he was offered to plead guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence. However, Meyers, the Kazakh student's lawyer, turned the offered down because he is sure that Tazhayakov would be acquitted in the end.
Writing by Gyuzel Kamalova, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina