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Boston Bombings: Arrested Man's Social Media Posts May Offer Clues

May 02, 2013

by Glenn Kates

On April 19, at 3:13 a.m., as authorities began the third hour of a 17-hour search for the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, Dias Kadyrbayev apparently logged onto VKontakte, a Russian social networking site, and posted a picture of himself with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

In writing a status message that mixed the Russian word "brat" with the common Arabic expression "Salam Alleikum," he seemd to be sending "greetings" to his "brother."

Because it was added more than three hours before Tsarnaev, 19, was named publicly as the suspect, the picture took on increased significance on May 1 when Kadyrbayev, along with friends Azamat Tazhayakov and Robel Phillipos, was charged with hindering the probe into the Boston Marathon attacks.

According to an FBI affidavit, Kadyrbayev had known as early as 6 p.m. the previous evening that his friend may have been involved in the Boston blasts.

He met Tazhayakov and Phillipos at Tsarnaev’s dorm room after Phillipos alerted him that photos of a suspect being shown on television looked like Tsarnaev. After seeing a backpack containing fireworks that had been emptied of their powder, the three friends, all 19, concluded that Tsarnaev must have been involved in the bombing.

Later that evening, Kadyrbayev, according to the affidavit, placed the backpack and the fireworks in a black garbage bag and threw it in a dumpster. He told investigators he was trying to protect Tsarnaev, who had become close to him and Tazhayakov over the past year. They had all been students at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov, Kazakh nationals who had been held for more than a week for violating their student visas, were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice and could face five years in prison. Phillipos, a U.S. citizen, has been charged with making false statements to investigators and could face eight years' imprisonment.

In a press briefing on May 1, Kadyrbayev's lawyer, Robert Stahl, said his client "is just as shocked and horrified by the violence that took place in Boston as the rest of the community is."

Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov, who both came from elite families, were described as friendly and well-liked in interviews conducted by RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service with acquaintances and family members.

"He never showed any aggression," said Aldiyarov Kadyrbayev, a cousin of Kadyrbayev in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city. "He and I grew up together, in the same apartment. We were brought up the same way. We were both quiet. We just can't believe it.”

Another close relative, who declined to be identified, said Kadyrbayev’s mother has left Kazakhstan for the United States to assist her son in his legal fight.

The VKontakte post by Kadyrbayev is striking mostly because of its timing. When it was posted, there had already been reports of a shootout that had left one suspect dead and another on the run, but at the time, most of the world -- perhaps including police -- would still not have been able to connect a name to the grainy image of suspect number two being shown on television screens. Kadyrbayev though, had allegedly already known for up to nine hours.

There are several other pictures with Tsarnaev on Kadyrbayev’s page, but before April 19 a year had passed since Tsarnaev had appeared among the photos, and the one posted two weeks ago is the only image with just the two of them.

The photo shows Kadyrbayev with a wide smile as a large meal awaits him and his friend on a table before them. Tsarnaev rests his right hand lazily on Kadyrbayev’s shoulder.

Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan, who died after the shootout with police, are suspected in the April 15 bombings at the Boston Marathon, which left three dead, and in the shooting death of an MIT police officer late on April 18, after the three college friends are alleged to have discovered the Tsarnaev connection to the attacks. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was caught hiding in a boat in a suburban backyard, remains hospitalized with gunshot injuries.

On the day of the manhunt, an RFE/RL reporter in Prague, who took a screenshot of the post, twice tried to contact Kadyrbayev through VKontakte, messaging him in Russian and in English.

Kadyrbayev did not respond and by the next day, the picture and the status message had been removed.

RFE/RL's Kazakh Service contributed to this report

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/boston-bombing-social-media-clues-kadyrbayev-tsarnaev/24975092.html

Copyright (c) 2013. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.