The parents of the two brothers accused of detonating explosives near the finish line of the Boston Marathon last week are expected to come to the United States to assist with an investigation into the terrorist attack.
The mother and father of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have been cooperating with US authorities from their native Russia in the days since a pair of homemade bombs blew up in Boston last Monday, killing three and injuring more than 200 others. Now according to the latest reports, Anzor and Zubeidat Tsarnaev are slated to soon come stateside in order to answer more questions about their children as authorities search for answers.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died as a result of the injuries he incurred during a firefight with police last week in Watertown, Massachusetts. He left behind a wife, Katherine Russell, and a 3-year-old daughter. An attorney for Russell told the media earlier this week that “She is doing everything she can to assist with the investigation,” and that “The reports of involvement by her husband and brother-in-law came as an absolute shock to them all.”
The younger of the two brothers, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, remains hospitalized in fair condition after being captured late Friday in Watertown and has been limited in his ability to communicate with investigators.
Now as authorities hope to learn more suspects’ past, sources say the parents are scheduled to come stateside in the coming days to aid in the investigation.
The father of the suspects, Anzor Tsarnaev, previously told the media that he hoped to travel to the US “as soon as possible.” He currently residents in the Republic of Dagestan, North Caucasus territory sandwiched between the west coast of the Caspian Sea and the country of Georgia.
RIA Novosti says the suspects’ mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, arrived in Dagestan late Tuesday to meet a team of American officials who traveled there earlier in the day from the US Embassy in Moscow.
“During the talks it was decided to take the Tsarnaev parents to the United States, the parents have given their consent to this, they will be involved in the US investigation,” a police source told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.
Traveling to the US may be a risky maneuver for the mother, though: the clerk of the Natick District Court in Massachusetts confirmed to ABC News that Zubeidat Tsarnaeva failed to appear at a court hearing last year to resolve charges that she stole $1,600 worth of merchandise from a Lord & Taylor department store. Authorities may chose to arrest her if she enters the US due to an outstanding warrant for shoplifting.
Meanwhile, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva maintains her sons’ innocence. Speaking to RT after her children were named as suspects last week, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said that the FBI has been conducting surveillance on Tamerlan for over a year and would have been aware of any suspicious activity.