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USA: BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECT INDICTED ON 30 COUNTS
June 27, 2013: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bombing suspect, has been indicted on 30 counts and faces death penalty.
Tsarnaev downloaded bomb-making instructions from an al-Qaida magazine, and gathered online material on Islamic jihad and martyrdom, a federal indictment charged today. The 30-count indictment includes many of the same weapon-of-mass-destruction charges, punishable by the death penalty, that were brought against the 19-year-old Tsarnaev in April. But prosecutors added charges covering the slaying of an MIT police officer and the carjacking of a motorist during the getaway attempt that left Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, dead. 3 people were killed and more than 260 wounded by the two pressure-cooker bombs that went off near the finish line of the marathon on April 15. victims were: Krystal Campbell, 29, 8-year-old Martin Richard and Lu Lingzi, 23, a student from China.
The indictment charges the Tsarnaevs with the April 18 shooting death of MIT police Officer Sean Collier, although it was unclear which brother pulled the trigger. But the indictment made no mention of any larger conspiracy beyond the brothers, and no mention of any direct overseas contacts with extremists. Instead, the indictment suggests the Internet played a central role in the suspects' radicalization. The papers detail how, after using the Internet to study jihad propaganda and bomb-making instructions, the brothers placed knapsacks containing shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the race.
The court papers also confirm that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev inadvertently contributed to his brother's death by running him over during a shootout with police.
The charges also cover the slaying of Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, who authorities say was shot in his cruiser by the Tsarnaevs during their getaway attempt. (Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, 27/06/2013)
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