There’s a lot to unpack in this video, from CTV in Toronto, where the Tsarnaev brothers’ aunt lives. The AP pulls out the highlights. She thinks the young men were framed. She notes that the older brother, Tamerlan, had become devout, praying five times a day for the last two years, she estimated.
TORONTO (AP) — An aunt of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects said Friday the older brother recently became a devout Muslim who prayed five times a day, and she doesn’t believe the brothers could have been involved in Monday’s attack.
“We’re talking about three dead people, 100-something injured, and I do not believe, I just do not believe our boys would do that … I don’t know them in the way that they could be capable of this,” Maret Tsarnaeva told reporters in Toronto.
She said her brother Anzor Tsarnaev had high expecations for his sons, especially 26-year-old Tamerlan.
She said her brother was desperate when he found out Tamerlan dropped out of his university. She said he always demanded more of his children and said Tamerlan was his favorite.
Tamerlan married and had a 3-year-old daughter in the U.S., she said.
“He has a wife in Boston and from a Christian family, so you can’t tie it to religion,” she said.
But she said Tamerlan “seemingly did not find himself yet in America, because it’s not easy.”
Click to watch the entire 12-minute video. At one point, she makes reference to coming from a place where government officials are none too shy about framing citizens. She also relates how the brothers came to the United States, though the timeline is still a bit confusing in her telling.
The Tsarnaevs’ father also suspects a set-up, referring to the law enforcement who shot him as “cowards.” Those cowards were also reportedly enduring a hail of explosive devices and gunfire from Tamerlan Tsarnaev at the time.
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