Tsarnaev body: Officials in Cambridge, Mass., said they will not allow the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the accused Boston Marathon bombers, to be buried in their city.
The statement came after the uncle of Tsarnaev, Ruslan Tsarni, told the media he thinks his nephew should be buried in the city. However, many protesters have said his body should be sent abroad.
“He lived in America. He grew up here and for the last 10 years he decided to be in Cambridge, therefore any contemplation that the body should be taken to a home country. . . . his home country is Cambridge, Mass.,” Tsarni told the Boston Globe. “Tamerlan Tsarnaev has no other place to be buried.’’
Cambridge City Manager Robert W. Healy told the paper that he is calling on Tsarnaev’s family to not get a permit for burial. He said the suspect’s burial would disturb the peace in the city.
“The difficult and stressful efforts of the residents of the city of Cambridge to return to a peaceful life would be adversely impacted by the turmoil, protests, and widespread media presence at such an interment,” Healy stated.
The mother of Tsarnaev, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, communicated with the Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlor, which has been seeking for a cemetery to accept his body. She wanted the funeral to send his body home to Russia, where he and his brother, Dzhokhar, were born.
“The woman was in tears,” funeral parlor owner Peter A. Stefan told the Boston Herald. “She just said, ‘It would be nice if you could get him home.’ She’d love to have him back there, obviously. Regardless of what he did, she’s still his mother. What are you going to say to her? What can you say?”
The dilemma over where to bury the 26-year-old suspect comes as a friend of his brother Dzhokhar heads to court Monday for a bail hearing on charges that he lied to federal investigators after the bombings.
Defense attorneys said in court documents filed Saturday that they will ask a federal judge to release Robel Phillipos of Cambridge from jail. They said he had nothing to do with the deadly bombings and isn’t a flight risk.
Phillipos, 19, was charged last week with lying to investigators about visiting Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s college dorm room on April 18, three days after the bombings. Two other friends were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice by taking a backpack with fireworks and a laptop from Tsarnaev’s dorm room. All four had studied at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
Both brothers are suspected of carrying out the bombing near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding more than 260 people on April 15.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
