[July 11, 2014]BOSTON (Reuters) - FBI agents who
interrogated a friend of the accused Boston Marathon bomber charged with
obstructing the investigation into the deadly blasts are expected to
take the witness stand on Friday as the first week of the trial comes to
a close.
Azamat Tazhayakov is the first of three friends of Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev to face trial on charges of interfering with the
investigation by going to the suspect's dorm room and removing a
laptop and backpack containing fireworks shells three days after the
April 15, 2013 attacks.
FBI special agent Farbod Azad, who questioned Tazhayakov after he
and two friends were ordered out of their New Bedford,
Massachusetts, apartment by heavily armed agents, is due to return
to the witness stand for a second day.
Azad on Thursday testified that Tazhayakov told him and roommate
Dias Kadyrbayev, both Kazakh exchange students, and a third man,
Robel Phillipos of Cambridge, Massachusetts, removed the backpack
and laptop from Tsarnaev's dorm room.
Tazhayakov's attorneys had argued ahead of trial that their client's
statements during that interview, which began April 19th and ran
into the next morning, should not be admitted at trial because he
had not believed he was free to go at the time.
Tazhayakov could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted of
obstruction of justice and conspiracy. Kadyrbayev faces the same
charges. Phillipos is accused of the lesser charge of lying to
investigators.
