My sons were framed by FBI: Father of Boston suspects

My sons were framed by FBI: Father of Boston suspects

The father of the suspects in Boston Marathon bombings has reiterated that his sons are innocent, stressing Tamerlan and Dzhokhar have been framed by the FBI.

In a telephone interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda daily published on Monday, Anzor Tsarnaev said the bombing had been orchestrated by the FBI which “kept my Tamerlan constantly under surveillance.”

One of the suspects, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, died in a hospital in Boston on April 19 after sustaining critical injuries in a car-chase and shootout with the police. His 19-year-old brother Dzhokar was arrested during a manhunt operation in the city of Watertown.

Anzor said he planned to follow up the case of their sons inside the United States. “I only know what they are showing on television. We plan to go and see him in America if Allah permits.”

Anzor added that his elder son Tamerlan told him after the bombing that he had received a phone call saying he was a suspect.

“They just wanted to set up Tamerlan and Dzhokhar [who] just turned out to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the father said.

“Tamerlan was driving him to school when they started shooting at them. This is a set-up, a political order, a Hollywood show,” Anzor stated.

The father also dismissed allegations that Tamerlan had radical views.

“Tamerlan did get religious after getting married. He went to the mosque every Friday. He prayed five times a day. He was a righteous Muslim, and could not have done what he is accused of.”

Anzor went on to say that his younger son, Dzhokhar, was an A grade student at Cambridge. “He worked as a lifesaver at a pool. He had big plans: to become a doctor, to open a business, to come over here.”

The boys were the main suspects in two bombings in Boston on April 15 that left three people dead and more than 170 injured.

The two brothers are also accused of killing a police officer on campus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on April 18.

Their mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaev, told the English-language Russia Today television station that her sons had fallen victim to a ‘setup’ and that her elder son had been under FBI surveillance for about five years.

“He (Tamerlan) was ‘controlled’ by the FBI, like, for three to five years,” Zubeidat said.

The FBI has confirmed that its officers interviewed Tamerlan in 2011 at the request of a foreign government, without unveiling the name of the state. It added the authorities “did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign” during the interview.