Suspects’ Aunt Receives Threats After Declaring Tsarnaev Brothers Innocent

The Boston bombing suspects’ aunt said she’s received threats after telling reporters in Toronto that her nephews were being framed.

Maret Tsarnaeva spoke with anger about the death of her nephew Tamerlan Tsarnaev and the capture of his brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The two are accused of placing bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, causing an explosion that left three dead and close to 180 injured.

The brothers then had another encounter with police, shooting and killing an officer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Thursday before leading police on a rolling gun battle that ended in Watertown. Tamerlan was killed in the confrontation while Dzhokhar escaped to a nearby backyard, where he was discovered late on Friday.

Speaking to reporters the day after Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s capture, the suspects’ aunt said threats had already begun coming in against the family.

“They are calling us, calling names, threatening, saying it’s time to go home,” Maret Tsarnaeva said on Saturday, according to the Toronto Sun. “Yes, it is time. We did not find that promise — democracy — in this country. But if I go home, I will go home only with bodies of my nephews.”

The suspects’ aunt had alleged that the Tsarnaev brothers weren’t responsible for the Boston bombing, and hinted toward a larger conspiracy.

“They made our boys enemies of the American nation,” Maret Tsarnaeva said, according to the paper. “They made them victims of the conspiracy.”

She continued: “They needed somebody to blame for something they committed themselves so they got them, so rejoice people, rejoice.”

The boys’ father, Anzor Tsarnaev, also believes the boys were set up. He told The Associated Press in a phone interview from the southern Russian republic of Dagestan that they were innocent and that Dzhokhar was “a true angel.”

The suspects’ aunt said the threats have not kept her from wanting to come to America. Maret said she wishes to come to join the family in their time of mourning, but has no one to watch her son.

[Image via: Aaron “Tango” Tang, Wikimedia Commons]