BBC

Three college classmates of the Boston bombings suspect have been accused of hindering the police investigation into the attacks.

Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev – both from Kazakhstan – threw away Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s laptop and backpack, police say.

Robel Phillipos is accused of lying to investigators. None of the three are implicated in plotting the attacks.

Three people died and 264 were wounded in the 15 April marathon blasts.

Mr Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old student, has been charged over the bombings. His 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, was killed during a shootout with police.

Both Kazakh men did not request bail at Wednesday’s hearing. Lawyers for the two said their clients denied the charges, and they had assisted the FBI investigation, not obstructed it.

Mr Phillipos is expected to appear in court next week.

If convicted, Mr Kadyrbayev and Mr Tazhayakov face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 (£160,000) fine, while Mr Phillipos faces up to eight years in prison and a similar fine.

‘Lol’

Mr Tazhayakov and Mr Kadyrbayev, both 19, are charged with destroying evidence; Mr Phillipos, a US citizen, is charged with making false statements.

According to the affidavit, Mr Tazhayakov and Mr Kadyrbayev removed items from the suspect’s dormitory room at the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth about two days before it was searched by the FBI.

A collection of fireworks found inside a backpack are seen in a handout photo released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 1 May 2013.

When TV news reports aired photos of the bombing suspects, released by the FBI, Mr Kadyrbayev allegedly texted Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to say that he resembled the suspect.

Mr Tsarnaev’s response included the phrases “lol” and “you better not text me”. According to the charge sheet, he also also told Mr Kadyrbayev: “I’m about to leave if you need something in my room take it.”

Mr Kadybayev’s lawyer said his client did not immediately think that Mr Tsarnaev was the suspect in the FBI images, and that he did not realise the backpack was evidence.

However, the FBI said that Mr Kadyrbayev knew when he saw a backpack containing fireworks which had been opened and emptied of powder that Mr Tsarnaev was involved in the bombings.

The affidavit says Mr Kadyrbayev told authorities that he and his two co-accused “collectively decided to throw the backpack and fireworks into the trash because they did not want Tsarnaev to get into trouble”.

Mr Kadyrbayev said he placed the backpack and fireworks along with rubbish from the apartment into a large refuse sack and threw it into a bin near the men’s apartment.

Investigators later found the backpack in a landfill.

Fireworks purchase

A lawyer representing Mr Tazhayakov and Mr Kadyrbayev said the pair had been held in jail for more than a week for allegedly violating their student visas, the Associated Press reported.

University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth said in a statement on Wednesday that Azamat Tazhayakov was currently enrolled, but had been suspended pending the outcome of the case.

The two other men were not currently enrolled, the university said; it did not specify if they had been in the past.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was injured in the police manhunt, has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death. He could be sentenced to death if convicted of the first charge.

When questioned by police in hospital, Mr Tsarnaev said he and his brother had been angered about the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, law enforcement sources have told US media. He remains in a hospital prison.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died on 19 April, had reportedly been investigated by the FBI, but no evidence of a threat was found.

A New Hampshire fireworks store has confirmed that the older brother bought two large boxes of fireworks in February.

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama said law enforcement officials had followed protocol and were not at fault.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s relatives said on Tuesday they would claim his body now that his widow, Katherine Russell, has given consent for the Massachusetts medical examiner to release it, an uncle said.

The Tsarnaev family has origins in the predominantly Muslim republic of Chechnya in southern Russia.

The brothers had been living in the US for about a decade at the time of the attack.

Dzhokhar is a US citizen, while Tamerlan was in the US on a Green Card.

For more on this story go to:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22370695