TerrorismAzamat Tazhayakov, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s friend, guilty of conspiracy charges

Azamat Tazhayakov, who removed a backpack from the dorm room of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has been found guilty by a Boston jury of impeding an investigation and conspiracy. Tazhayakov was one of three college friends of Tsarnaev charged following the bombing.

Prosecutors said Tazhayakov and his friend Dias Kadyrbayev removed items from Tsarnaev’s dorm room at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth a few days after the Boston Marathon bombing last year.

Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev, both citizens of Kazakhstan, were accused of removing the backpack, which contained a laptop and fireworks that had been emptied of gunpowder, from Tsarnaev’s room. The prosecution says that the two then threw the backpack away.

According to the criminal complaint, Kadyrbayev later told police he threw the backpack into a dumpster near his apartment in New Bedford, Massachusetts, “in order to help his friend Tsarnaev avoid trouble.”

The jury found Tazhayakov not guilty a separate charge — that of removing the laptop from Tsarnaev’s room.

The Guardian reports that a third student at the school, Robel Phillipos, is charged with making false statements during a terrorism investigation. Law enforcement believes that he, too, was in Tsarnaev’s apartment.

Lawyers for Tazhayakov argued that it was Kadyrbayev who removed the backpack from Tsarnaev’s room, but failed to persuade the jury. Prosecutors argued both men agreed to remove the items, though Kadyrbayev took the lead, in an effort to protect their friend after Dzhokhar’s image was broadcast by the media and FBI, according to the Boston Globe.

Kadyrbayev and Phillipos are scheduled to stand trial in September.

The Guardian notes that Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov could face up to five years in jail and a fine of $250,000. Tazhayakov is scheduled to be sentenced in October. Phillipos could face eight years in jail and a $250,000 fine.