Azamat, a student here from Kazakhstan, has been in custody, in a cell by himself, where he must spend 22.5 hours a day. He didn't testify at his obstruction trial in July. He told the jury yesterday:
As long as I tell the truth, it might help with my sentence,” Azamat Tazhayakov, 20, briefly testified this afternoon, telling jurors in the trial of his pal Robel Phillipos the U.S. Attorney’s Office has made no promises in exchange for his cooperation.
It was Dias, not Azamat or Phillipos who took Jahar's backpack from his dorm room, after showing Jahar's roommate a text authorizing him to take what he wanted from the room. The roommate also testified yesterday for the Government. He said Robel and Azamat were watching TV and talking to each other while Dias was searching the dorm room.
Azamat didn't do a lot for the Government -- he couldn't remember Robel telling Dias "Do what you have to do" which is what the FBI claimed Robel told them he said in response to Dias asking at the apartment whether he should get rid of the backpack. (The FBI did not record the interrogation.)
As to disposing of the backpack, there was supposedly a conversation between Dias and Azamat back at their apartment. Robel told the FBI he was asleep and didn't hear any discussion about this. He also said Azamat and Dias were speaking in Russian most of the night and he doesn't speak or understand Russian. On the witness stand yesterday, Azamat agreed he and Dias were speaking in Russian, but said he thought Robel was awake. But, and this is a big but, in his earlier statements to the FBI, Azamat couldn't remember whether Robel was asleep when he and Dias discussed the backpack. When confronted with this on cross, Azamat went back to saying he couldn't remember. (Not surprising his version changed considering he's trying to earn a sentence reduction for assisting the government. The Government insists it just tells cooperating defendants to tell the truth, but the reality is, if their truth doesn't match the Government's version of the truth, they get nothing. It's a practice makes it far too easy for defendants to embellish or lie.)
The testimony the roommate and Dias' girlfriend gave at Azamat's trial makes the events even more confusing. (See Firedoglake's excellent recap.) Dias' girlfriend, who was present that night at Dias and Azamat's apartment, testified from Kazakstan by video. She said the discussion about getting rid of the backpack was between her and Dias after they retired to the bedroom. She said she told Dias to get rid of the backpack, and he left for about 10 minutes. She didn't see it after that.
I thought the government's case against Azamat was weak and he should have been acquitted. I also think the prosecution of all three of these kids is overkill. (See this columnist who agrees.)
After initially lying, Kadyrbayev and another friend, Azamat Tazhayakov, came clean about the dumped backpack the night Tsarnaev was captured. Phillipos is not accused of involvement in the bombing, or of dumping the bag. Federal prosecutors have charged him only with lying about what he saw.
...[E]ven if the government is right, and Phillipos lied, it’s hard not to feel sorry for him. It is easy to imagine him reeling from the revelation that his friend had likely committed a terrorist attack. Drug-addled and sleep deprived, he agreed to speak to investigators repeatedly without benefit of a lawyer. An FBI agent admitted to using coercive interrogation techniques on him, going at him for hours, locking the door to the interrogation room and promising to protect him from the “wolves” — the bad cops — outside. Plenty of kids would lie in these circumstances — or confess to things that aren’t true.
The FBI may have also had the cheesiest line of the day.
The agent admitted needling Phillipos by telling him if he wasn’t on “Team America,” he was “on the bench.”
As for Robel, here's his background from an earlier post of mine, which I took from the bond pleadings. (The Government ultimately agreed to bond for him.) I uploaded the Complaint, bond motion, his mother's affidavit and Robel's resume.
The bond motion says:
The school record shows that Mr. Phillipos had taken a leave of absence for a semester and did not attend school in the spring. As a result, he had not had contact with the main suspect or the other two individuals for over two months. But by sheer coincidence and bad luck, he was invited to attend a seminar on campus on April 18. As such, he did not have much to offer the authorities regarding the investigation of the suspect.
Robel has lived in Cambridge his entire life. He is a U.S. citizen, raised by a single mother, a refugee from Ethopia who while raising him, obtained a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree in Social Work. She is the Director of numerous prominent domestic violence programs and emergency shelters and also assists refugees in the community.
Robel was an honor student in high school. He is still in college – he had taken this semester off. The family has the strong support of their church, the Ethopian Orthodox Christian church. He has never been arrested. He has strong family and community ties and was active in civic youth programs in the city.
Interestingly, one of the affidavits filed on his behalf is by a woman who adopted an Ethopian child. She refers to the Judge castigating Robel for looking down instead of at her during his court appearance. She writes:
When I read in the paper that the judge had admonished him for looking down at the floor instead of into her eyes, I felt sad because that is a sign of respect for in Ethiopian culture– not to look into the eyes of someone older or in authority, and to speak softly.
Philippo's written statement to the FBI (following his fourth round of questioning without a lawyer) is here.
Dias's car had a fake front license tag (sold at UMass) that said Terrorista #1. His lawyer has said it was a joke. Obviously, or I doubt the school would have put its name on it.
Azamat faces a maximum of 20 years when sentenced. Each of the two counts against Robel carries a maximum of 8 years.
These kids were not involved in the bombing and had no advance notice of it. No bomb-making materials were found in Dias and Azamat's apartment. They were under no obligation to call authorities and tell what they knew, or to make any statements at all. Yet they were cooperative and agreed to assist and be interviewed. Putting them in prison for years serves no one, not even "Team America." In my opinion, none of them deserved to be charged with more than a misdemeanor.
Moral of the story: Don't talk to the Feds without a lawyer. Our prisons are filled with people who thought if they could only tell their side of the story, the cops would see it their way. It rarely happens. Ask for a lawyer immediately and don't talk until you've consulted one.