MOSCOW, April 17 (RIA Novosti) – The US District Court of Massachusetts has ruled to allow the family of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to visit him in prison without an FBI escort, the National Law Journal reported Thursday.
Attorneys of the defendant said they feared that family conversations between the Tsarnaevs could be misinterpreted by the FBI. The court gave US authorities two weeks to prepare counterarguments against such visits.
On Wednesday, the court also denied a motion by prosecutors to limit Tsarnaev’s access to pictures of the Boston Marathon bombing victims. In addition, District Judge George O'Toole turned down an appeal of the defense to dismiss a number of charges.
Twenty-year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arrested in April 2013 and is facing 30 charges, half of which are punishable by the death penalty. Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty.
Three people were killed and over 260 wounded after two bombs went off near the finish line of the prestigious Boston Marathon on April 15 last year. The Tsarnaev brothers were soon after identified as suspects in the blasts.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a gunfight with police in the days following the bomb attack. His younger brother, Dzhokhar, tried to flee the city but was wounded and later arrested. He is now awaiting trial in federal court, scheduled to begin November 3.
