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Kazakhstan|life|December 19, 2014 / 08:51 AM
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appears in court for 1st time since 2013

AKIPRESS.COM - Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, accused of being one of two men who orchestrated the bomb attack at the Boston Marathon in 2013 that killed three people and injured hundreds more, appeared in public Thursday for the first time since his arraignment last year, reports The Guardian. 

Outside of the Boston courthouse where a pretrial hearing on Tsarnaev’s case was being held, a small group of protesters had come to declare the innocence of the boy they know by his university nickname: Jahar.

“We feel his rights were tossed out of the window,” said Valerie Vanetta, 23, who had travelled from Philadelphia for the hearing.

She held a cardboard sign covered in printed-out CCTV footage from the day of the bombing, with circles drawn around Tsarnaev, pictured with the backpack that the prosecution contends contained the explosives. “These bags are not these bags,” the caption said. Another: “Still believe the Feds?”

Also at the hearing was Marc Fucarile, who was severely wounded in the bombing, losing his right leg, breaking his spine and other bones, and suffering severe burns and shrapnel wounds. He was, after 49 surgical procedures, the last of the surviving victims of the bombing to get out of hospital.

According to the protesters, Fucarile said he was insulted by their presence. “Get a life. Go to work,” they said he’d told them. One of them said something about the prosecutors “twisting the evidence,” and he said, “is this twisted?” and lifted his prosthetic leg.

Inside the courtroom, Tsarnaev, 21, looked gray and tired. During the hearing, he sat fiddling – with items on the defense table; with his collar; with his hands. His hair has grown big and fluffy, and a patchy adolescent chinstrap beard topped his white shirt. Occasionally he rubbed his eyes, which were puffy. At one point looked like he was wiping away a tear.

He wore a black zip-up cardigan, and fiddled with that, too. He looked disengaged, almost drugged, and answered questions from the judge in a low mumble that left reporters confused. “Did he say ‘very much’ or ‘pretty much’ there?” one journalist asked in a low whisper during the proceedings.

George O’Toole, the presiding judge, told the court that the witness list would be kept sealed until after the jury had been impanelled. “There are some things for the case that – if discussed in the public – might affect the ability to get a fair-minded jury,” he said.

At one point Tsarnaev’s defense attorney mentioned, off-handedly, the possibility of this being a trial that could end in a death sentence. At those words, Tsarnaev’s head jerked up slightly, and his mouth tightened in what might have been a grimace, or might have been a smile.

The hearing, which many reporters had expected to last all day, was done in just over half an hour. At the end, there was a screamed tirade, in Russian, from the gallery.

It was Elena Teyer. The mother-in-law of Ibragim Todashev, a friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev who was shot and killed by an FBI agent during an interview with police, continued to shout as she walked out across the lobby floor, reporters scrambling after her.

The Guardian caught up with Teyer in the elevator, where she translated her courtroom tirade from Russian to English. “Jahar! You have a lot of supporters! We pray for you – we know that you are innocent!” was what she had shouted, she said.

In the elevator she found she had a small captive audience of reporters. “Stop killing innocent children!” she said. The doors opened and closed again.

The trial is set to begin on 5 January.

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