Florida group to sue FBI in death of friend of Boston bombing suspect

[March 03, 2015]  By Barbara Liston
 
 ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - A Florida Islamic group announced on Monday it has filed a formal notice with the FBI that it plans to sue the agency for $30 million in the death of Ibragim Todashev, a friend of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.

Todashev, 27, a Muslim Chechen immigrant, was killed in an Orlando apartment in May 2013 during FBI questioning about his links with the Boston suspects. The FBI said the agent shot Todashev after he attacked him.

The notice was filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations Florida (CAIR-Florida), a civil rights group, on behalf of Todashev's parents who accused the FBI in a statement on Monday of killing their son "in cold blood."

Thania Diaz Clevenger, civil rights director for CAIR Florida, said the group was "seeking answers and justice for someone who was shot seven times by an FBI agent in his own home after hours of interrogation."

An FBI spokesman said Monday the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
 

CAIR spokesman Ali Kurnaz told a press conference in Orlando "there are a lot of things that happened that day that we don't know ... there are things that don't add up."

For example, the autopsy report and video from the interrogation have not been publicly released, he said.

CAIR accused the FBI of "careless hiring practices" involving FBI agent Aaron McFarlane as well as a lax internal review that cleared him in Todashev's death.

CAIR said in a statement that during his time with the Oakland, California, Police Department he was involved in two police brutality lawsuits, four internal affairs investigations, allegations of beating suspects and witnesses falsified police reports.

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was in court on Monday for a hearing before his trial starts later this week. Tsarnaev, 21, is accused of killing three people and injuring 264 with bombs in the largest mass-casualty attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001.

He is also accused of killing a police officer.

Todashev was a friend of Tsarnaev's brother, Tamerlan, an alleged co-conspirator in the Boston bombing, who was killed in a police shootout.

Todashev's parents in Russia issued a statement through CAIR on Monday, saying their son "was killed by the FBI in cold blood."

"Today, together with CAIR Florida, we are starting a process that will bring, as we hope, justice to our son, our family, and our world."

(Writing by David Adams; Editing by Bill Trott)

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