The father of the two Chechen-origin Boston bombings suspects is expected to fly from Russia to the US soon and may bring important information for the probe into the deadly attack, a media report said today.
Anzor Tsarnaev is to depart for the US from Dagestan as soon as tomorrow, human rights activist Kheda Saratova, who is serving as the parents’ representative, told CNN.
Anzor is the father of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who have been accused of carrying out the deadly Boston Marathon bombings that claimed three lives and injured over 250.
Tamerlan was pronounced dead last Friday after suffering shrapnel and bullet wounds in a gunfight with police. Dzhokhar was later arrested in connection with the bombings and is in the hospital recuperating from injuries.
Dzhokhar has been charged with conspiring to use “weapon of mass destruction” and faces the death penalty.
Anzor may be bringing along important information for the investigation into the marathon bombings, the report said.
Anzor has said he will cooperate in the investigations into the alleged crimes of his sons.
Though they have relatives living in the US, no one had claimed Tamerlan’s body till now, the Massachusetts chief medical examiner’s office said.
Relatives living in the area have publicly remarked that they are ashamed of the two young men. Several Boston-area imams have said they would feel uncomfortable presiding over his funeral.
Russian state media reported that Anzor Tsarnaev’s wife, Zubeidat, was supposed to travel with him, but she is wanted on a 2012 felony charges of shop lifting and property damage in Massachusetts, according to court officials.
The family lived there before she jumped bail and they moved the same year to Dagestan, a semi-autonomous region of Russia, officials said.
Saratova said the suspects’ mother would not be travelling to the US, where there’s been an arrest warrant for her since October, according to the Natick District Court.
Characterised in fair condition at a Boston hospital, Dzhokhar has been communicating with authorities. His father has spoken for hours with US and Russian authorities, Saratova said.
Yesterday, FBI agents were in Makhachkala, Dagestan — a city that Tamerlan called home for several months in 2012 — to talk with the suspects’ parents.
The conversation — which included members of Russia’s federal security service — ended last evening, the suspects’ mother told Saratova.