A United States jury found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty of the Boston Marathon bombing. Despite the fact that his own lawyer admitted the guilt in court, a relative from Russia still believes that he and his now-dead elder brother had no motive to carry out the terrorist attack.
Tsarnaev was found guilty on Wednesday of the 30 counts against him. The same jury in Boston must now decide if he should be sentenced to life in prison or to death.
Roza Tsarnaeva, a 66-year-old aunt of Tsarnaev, spoke to The Associated Press in Chechnya, explaining that she is “completely convinced that the two brothers were not guilty of this.”
“These boys didn’t need this,” the women said. “They never saw war, they were little when they arrived in the U.S. and grew up there. No one in the Tsarnaev family, none of the relatives, ever took part in the military campaigns in Chechnya”, Roza Tsarnaeva added. Chechnya is known for its troubled past and present, being a country in which separatists, among them some radical Islamists, carried out two wars against Russian armed forces.
The aunt believes that the Boston bombing was organized by “the American secret services”.
Tsarnaev’s father, who lives in the republic of Dagestan, neighboring Chechnya, has not responded to any phone calls or answered to text messages on the matter.
The Tsarnaev trial now moves into a second phase. It could start early next week and is expected to last another two weeks. The same jury, composed of seven women and five men, will decide whether to sentence Dzhokhar to death or to life in prison without parole.
Even tough he pleaded not guilty, Tsarnaev admitted his guilt culpability at the start of the trial through his lawyers. His defense team targeted an acquittal, while trying to convince the jury to exempt him from capital punishment. The lawyers portrayed him as a reckless and confused young man from a broken family who was controlled by his older brother Tamerlan, who was the mastermind behind the attack in which 3 people have died and more than 200 were injured.
Tamerlan, his 26-year-old brother, died four days after the attack during a firefight with police.
Young Tsarnaev’s lawyers carried out a relatively short defense, calling just a few witnesses in an effort to establish Tamerlan as the primary figure who purchased the bomb components and searched them on the Internet.
Image Source: NPR