Tamerlan Tsarnaev (L) in 2010 and his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in an undated FBI handout photo are shown in this combination photo.
Credit: Lowell Sun/FBI Handout/Reuters
U.S. officials on Friday charged a Kyrgyzstani national who bought dinner for the accused Boston Marathon bombers the night of the attack with interfering with the investigation into the deadly bombing.
The man, Khairullozhon Matanov, a 23-year-old taxi driver who lives in Quincy, faces one criminal count of destroying records and three of lying to investigators in a terrorism investigation, according to court papers.
Prosecutors said Matanov had been friends with accused bombers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, spoke with both in the days after the blast but lied to police about the extent of his relationship with the pair.
Matanov, who had hiked a New Hampshire mountain with Tamerlan Tsarnaev to “train like, and praise, the ‘mujahideen,'” according to court papers, deleted searches related to the attacks from his computer, tried to dispose of cell phones he had used to contact the brothers, and denied knowing much about the pair in interview with police.
Matanov was not accused of playing a role in the April 15, 2013, bombing, which killed three people and injured 264. The Tsarnaev brothers were also accused of shooting dead a university police officer three days after the attack as they tried to flee Boston.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died after a shootout with police following that incident, while Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was apprehended early the next evening. The surviving brother is awaiting trial and faces the possibility of execution if convicted.
Matanov is due in federal court Friday afternoon.
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