Boston bomb suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev denies charges
Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pleads not guilty to all charges in his first appearance before a court filled with blast victims.
Tsarnaev, 19, smiled crookedly – he appeared to have a jaw injury – at his sisters as he arrived in court.
He leaned toward a microphone and said “Not guilty” in a Russian accent to 30 federal charges, including using a weapon of mass destruction to kill.
He made a kissing motion toward his family as he was led out of the courtroom.
Authorities claim Tsarnaev orchestrated the attack along with his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died following a shootout with police three days after the bombing.
Pair ‘killed police officer’
Authorities say the brothers of ethnic Chechen descent killed a police officer while they were on the run.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arrested on 19 April when he was found hiding in a boat in a suburban backyard. He was initially charged in a hospital where he was recovering from wounds suffered in a police shootout.
Prosecutors say Tsarnaev, a Muslim, wrote about his motivations for the bombing on the walls inside the boat where he was captured. He wrote that the U.S. government was “killing our innocent civilians.”
Tsarnaev’s two sisters were also in court on Wednesday. One of them sobbed. His parents remained in Russia.
About a dozen Tsarnaev supporters cheered as his motorcade arrived, yelling, “Justice for Jahar!” as Tsarnaev is known. One woman held a sign that said, “Free Jahar.”
Suspect’s friends in court
Lacey Buckley, 23, said she has never met Tsarnaev but came because she believes he’s innocent. “I just think so many of his rights were violated. They almost murdered an unarmed kid in a boat,” she said.
A group of Tsarnaev’s friends waited in line outside the courtroom for hours, hoping to get a seat.
Hank Alvarez, 19, called his friend calm, peaceful and apolitical.
“There was nothing sketchy about him,” said another friend, 20-year-old Shun Tsou, who added that he had not formed an opinion on Tsarnaev’s guilt or innocence.