Dzhokhar Tsarnaev claims innocence in the Boston Marathon bombing, mom Zubeidat Tsarnaev says, after her first and only phone call to the surviving suspect since his capture last month.
Tsarnaev claims innocence now, contrary to the reports he had openly and freely admitted a role in the attack upon his initial capture and before he was read his Miranda rights, Zubeidat says.
After the call, Tsarnaev’s mother seemed to indicate the 19-year-old had limited memory of the attacks and their aftermath, and was struggling to cope with the death of brother Tamerlan the night before his own capture.
She explained after speaking to her surviving son for the first time :
“[Dzhokhar] didn’t hold back his emotions either, as if he were screaming to the whole world: What is this? What’s happening? … I could just feel that he was being driven crazy by the unfairness that happened to us, that they killed our innocent Tamerlan.”
Father Anzar seemed to agree, telling the AP that he hopes the younger Tsarnaev will be cleared and return to his family in Chechnya:
“All I can do is pray to God and hope that one day fairness will win out, our children will be cleared, and we will at least get Dzhokhar back, crippled, but at least alive.”
If Tsarnaev claims innocence, the assertion seems to run contrary to one bit of evidence reported weeks after the dramatic capture of the surviving suspect in a Watertown resident’s boat following the lockdown of Boston.
Law enforcement officers say that inside the boat, a “note” written on the vessel’s interior claimed responsibility for the attack as retribution for the killings of muslims in U.S. led conflicts abroad.
Authorities have not corroborated Zubeidat Tsarnaev’s assertion that the younger Tsarnaev claims innocence in the attacks.