Kyrgyzstan national to change plea on hampering Boston bomb probe

By Scott Malone

BOSTON (Reuters) – A citizen of Kyrgyzstan is due to change his prior not guilty plea on charges of lying to investigators probing the deadly bombing attack on the Boston Marathon in April 2013, according to court papers filed on Monday.

The man, Khairullozhon Matanov, was a friend of accused bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev who approached police three days after the deadly attack to offer information on the brothers but played down how well he knew the pair.

Defense attorneys and prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston on Monday to schedule a hearing to enter a new plea in the case. Defense attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Matanov had previously pleaded not guilty to charges of destroying records and lying to officials in a terrorism investigation.

Jury selection has begun in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s trial. Tamerlan died following a gunbattle with police three days after the attack that killed three people and injured more than 260.

Matanov was living in Quincy, Massachusetts, and working as a cab driver in May 2014 when the FBI arrested him and charged him with lying to investigators probing the case. He has been held in federal custody since that time, in part because he lost his job and his apartment after being arrested.

He is one of four friends of the Tsarnaev brothers to face charges related to hampering the investigation into the largest mass-casualty attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001.

Three college friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faced criminal charges for having gone to his dorm room three days after the attack and removed a backpack. Of those friends, Robel Phillipos of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was found guilty of lying to investigators, while Kazakhstan national Azamat Tazyhakov was convicted of obstructing justice and Dias Kadyrbayev, also of Kazakhstan, pleaded guilty to obstruction.

None of the men are charged with playing any role in the bombing.

The surviving Tsarnaev brother has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

(This version of the story corrects spelling of Kyrgyzstan in first paragraph)

(Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Eric Walsh)