MAKHACHKALA, April 24 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian parents of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings have agreed to visit the United States to assist in the ongoing investigation into the crime, a police source said on Wednesday.
A team from the US Embassy in Moscow has arrived in Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan to speak to the parents of the Tsarnaev brothers, who are suspected of having planted the homemade bombs which exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, killing three people and injuring around 200.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during a shootout with police in the Boston suburb of Watertown on Friday. Dzhokhar was apprehended hours later, after eluding a massive manhunt which saw the city of Boston and many of its suburbs locked down.
“During the talks it was decided to take the Tsarnaev parents to the United States, the parents have given their consent to this, they will be involved in the US investigation,” the source told RIA Novosti.
The mother of the suspects, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, 46, who had earlier expressed disbelief that her sons could have carried out the attack, arrived in Dagestan on Tuesday night to meet the US team.
The suspects' Russian father, Anzor Tsarnaev told RIA Novosti that they are going to fly to the US on Thursday.
Anzor Tsarnaev,a resident of the volatile republic of Dagestan, previously announced his plans to travel to the United States “as soon as possible.”
Anzor Tsarnaev said he had a phone conversation with US diplomats ahead of the meeting on Wednesday. He said earlier he had grave doubts about his son’s ability to give testimony. “He [Dzhokhar Tsarnaev] is giving no testimony. He is even unable to speak,” he said.
US media reports said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told investigators in writing that he and his brother acted alone in carrying out the attack and that they were motivated by religion.
(Updated at 18.55 with the father's departure date)
