Federal prosecutors met in a closed-door hearing on Thursday with lawyers for the last of three friends of the accused Boston Marathon bomber to face criminal charges for removing a laptop and backpack from the suspect's dorm room, according to Reuters.
Robel Phillipos, a 20-year-old resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is charged with lying to investigators about his role in his April 18, 2013, visit to the dorm of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, three days after the bombing that killed three people and injured 264, Reuters reported.
The prosecution and defense declined to comment on the substance of the hearing, which was held under court seal, according to Reuters.
Two other friends, Kazakh exchange students Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, faced the more serious charge of obstruction of justice for removing the items from Tsarnaev's room at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and dropping them in a dumpster, Reuters reported.
Tazhayakov was found guilty of obstruction in July and Kadyrbayev last month pleaded guilty to the charges in exchange for a seven-year sentence that was less than the 25 years he could have faced if convicted at trial, according to Reuters.
Phillipos is due to go on trial in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts later this month and faces a sentence of up to 16 years in prison if convicted, Reuters reported.
Tsarnaev is awaiting a trial set to begin in November, according to Reuters.
He faces the possibility of execution if found guilty of carrying out the deadly bombing and also murdering a university police officer three days later, Reuters reported.
© 2025 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
