Azamat Tazhayakov, Obstructing Boston Marathon Bombing Investigation, Massachusetts 2013

BOSTON — In a shocking turn of events, a federal jury has convicted a friend of the alleged Boston Marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, for impeding the bombing investigation.

Azamat Tazhayakov, 20, was found guilty of conspiring to obstruct justice and obstructing justice with the intent to impede the Boston Marathon bombing investigation. U.S. District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock scheduled sentencing for October 16, 2014.

Tazhayakov, a national of Kazakhstan, was temporarily living in the United States on a student visa while attending the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. However, at the time of his arrest, his visa had been revoked.

The evidence at trial proved that on April 18, 2013, Tazhayakov and others went to Tsarnaev’s dormitory room and found items that linked Tsarnaev to the bombing. These items included fireworks from which “gunpowder” appeared to have been removed and a jar of Vaseline that they believed could be used to make bombs.

A forensic examiner testified that Vaseline can be used to make improvised explosive devices. A month before the bombing, Tsarnaev had told Tazhayakov that it would be good to die as shaheed (martyr) and that he knew how to build a bomb. Tsarnaev also identified specific ingredients one could use to make a bomb, including “gunpowder.”

After searching Tsarnaev’s dormitory room, Tazhayakov helped remove Tsarnaev’s laptop and a backpack containing fireworks, a jar of Vaseline, and a thumb drive. The backpack was then placed in a garbage bag and thrown into a dumpster outside Tazhayakov’s New Bedford apartment. The FBI recovered this backpack a week later, after 25 agents spent two days searching a landfill in New Bedford.

The charging statute provides a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison on the obstruction of justice count and five years on the conspiracy count, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 for each charge. Tazhayakov will also be deported at the conclusion of this prosecution.

Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys B. Stephanie Siegmann and John A. Capin of U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz’s Anti-Terrorism and National Security Unit with assistance from the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin, and Vincent B. Lisi, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Boston Field Division, made the announcement today.

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