Tsarnaev Pal's Girlfriend Testifies About Disposal Of Bombing Suspect's Backpack
BOSTON (CBS) – The girlfriend of one of two men facing obstruction of justice charges testified that the night Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was named a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings her boyfriend got rid of a backpack he had taken from Tsarnaev's dorm room.
Bayan Kumiskali is testifying on video from Kazakhstan in the trial of Azamat Tazhayakov, a friend of her boyfriend, Dias Kadyrbaev, and Tsarnaev. Tazhayakov is accused of hindering the investigation of the bombings.
Kadyrbaev, Tazhayakov and Tsarnaev were all students at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
Kumiskali, Kadyrbayev and several others were taken into custody at a New Bedford apartment on the Friday after the April 15, 2013, attack at the marathon finish line.
She testified that Kadyrbaev had returned to the apartment from Tsarnaev's UMass Dartmouth dorm with a backpack and told her that it contained a firework emptied of powder.
Kumiskali said she told him she wanted it out of the apartment and that she told him "if the person on TV might be Dzhokhar, this might be evidence."
He then left the apartment, she testified, and later returned telling her in Russian "no more backpack."
Kumiskali said she never saw the backpack and never saw Tazahayakov with the backpack.
During her testimony, Kumiskali described SWAT teams arriving at the apartment, ordering her and the others to leave with guns drawn, and placing them in cuffs.
Kumiskali has not been charged with anything and was given immunity for her testimony.
Kadyrbaev will be tried separately at a later date on obstruction of justice charges.
Related: Roommate Says Tsarnaev Acted Normal After Attack
Also on Wednesday, Tsarnaev's former roommate, Andrew Dwinells, took the stand for a second day of testimony.
Inside their dorm room at UMass Dartmouth, Dwinells recalled Tsarnaev watching a show about the 9/11 attacks and saying the tragedy was a government conspiracy.
But Dwinells testified that he never thought Tsarnaev was a terrorist.
He said he was there when Tsarnaev's friends allegedly removed the backpack holding fireworks emptied of gun powder.
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