Kazakh students in Boston charged with destroying evidence - Foreign Ministry
ASTANA. May 6 (Interfax-AVN) - Kazakh students detained in Boston, Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, have been charged with destroying evidence, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry tweeted on May 2.
According to the Foreign Ministry's information, the detainees have been transferred to a federal prison. The court hearing of this criminal case is schedule for May 14.
The Kazakh Foreign Ministry said that "our citizens are not charged with complicity in organizing the explosions in Boston."
The Kazakh citizens are currently being provided with necessary consular assistance, the ministry said in a statement. "Their guilt has not been proven yet, the investigation is under way. D. Kadyrbayev and A. Tazhayakov are cooperating with investigative authorities and are assisting them," the statement said.
"As we have said repeatedly, Kazakhstan decisively condemns any display of terrorism. The Kazakh side is cooperating with the U.S. law enforcement authorities in their investigation of the incident," the Foreign Ministry said.
According to mass media reports, 19-year-old students from Kazakhstan Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov are charged with complicity in an effort obstruct justice.
Investigators think that the two concealed evidence related to the case against Dzhokhar Tsarnayev accused of carrying out terrorist attack in Boston.
The Kazakh students detained amid the case on the explosions in Boston are facing up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000, the Ekho Moskvy (Eco of Moscow) radio station reported citing the FBI.
The detained students admitted they had tried to destroy evidence. "They took out a backpack from Tsarnayev's room, after learning from news reports that Dzhokhar was suspected in carrying out the terrorist attack," the FBI said in a statement. Special service officers later found evidence in a dumpster.
The third detained person, U.S. citizen Robel Phillipos, charged with giving false testimony, is facing up to eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine.