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| FILE - This file photo provided Friday, April 19, 2013 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. A federal grand jury in Boston returned a 30-count indictment against Tsarnaev on Thursday, June 27, 2013, on charges including using a weapon of mass destruction and bombing a place of public use, resulting in death. |
BOSTON (AP)
-- Boston Marathon suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev downloaded bomb-making
instructions from an al-Qaida magazine, gathered online material on
Islamic jihad and martyrdom, and later scrawled anti-American messages
inside the boat where he lay wounded, a federal indictment charged
Thursday.
The 30-count indictment contains the
bombing charges, punishable by the death penalty, that were brought in
April against the 19-year-old Tsarnaev, including use of a weapon of
mass destruction to kill.
It also contains
many new 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.
"Tamerlan
Tsarnaev's justice will be in the next world, but for his brother,
accountability will begin right here in the district of Massachusetts,"
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley, whose jurisdiction includes
Boston, said at a news conference with federal prosecutors.
The
indictment provides one of the most detailed public explanations to
date of the brothers' alleged motive - Islamic extremism - and the role
the Internet may have played in influencing them.
Three
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.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured four days later, hiding in a boat parked in a backyard in Watertown, Mass.
According
to the indictment, he scrawled messages on the inside of the vessel
that said, among other things, "The U.S. Government is killing our
innocent civilians," "I can't stand to see such evil go unpunished," and
"We Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all."
The
Tsarnaev brothers had roots in the turbulent Russian regions of
Dagestan and Chechnya, which have become recruiting grounds for Muslim
extremists. They had been living in the U.S. about a decade.
But
the indictment made no mention of any larger conspiracy beyond the
brothers, and no reference to any direct overseas contacts with
extremists. Instead, the indictment suggests the Internet played an
important role in the suspects' radicalization.
Before
the attack, according to the indictment, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev downloaded
onto his computer the summer 2010 issue of Inspire, an online
English-language magazine published by al-Qaida. The issue detailed how
to make bombs from pressure cookers, explosive powder extracted from
fireworks, and lethal shrapnel.
He also
downloaded extremist Muslim literature, including "Defense of the Muslim
Lands, the First Obligation After Imam," which advocates "violence
designed to terrorize the perceived enemies of Islam," the indictment
said.
Another tract downloaded included a
foreword by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American propagandist for al-Qaida who
was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011.
U.S.
Attorney Carmen Ortiz of Massachusetts said Attorney General Eric
Holder will decide whether to pursue the death penalty against Tsarnaev,
who will be arraigned on July 10.
The
indictment assembled and confirmed details of the case that have been
widely reported over the past two months, and added new pieces of
information.
For example, it corroborated
reports that Tamerlan Tsarnaev bought 48 mortar shells from a Seabrook,
N.H., fireworks store. It also disclosed that he used the Internet to
order electronic components that could be used in making bombs.
The
papers detail how the brothers then allegedly placed knapsacks
containing shrapnel-packed bombs near the finish line of the 26.2-mile
race.
The court papers also corroborated
reports by authorities that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev contributed to his
brother's death by accidentally running him over with a stolen vehicle
during a shootout and police chase.
The
charges cover the slaying of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
police officer Sean Collier, who authorities said was shot in the head
at close range in his cruiser by the Tsarnaevs, who tried to take his
gun.
In addition, prosecutors said that during
the carjacking, the Tsarnaevs forced the motorist to turn over his ATM
card and his password, and Dzhokhar withdrew $800 from the man's
account.
At the same time the federal
indictment was announced, Massachusetts authorities brought a 15-count
state indictment against Dzhokhar over the MIT officer's slaying and the
police shootout.
