It was by far the most emotional Tsarnaev has seemed in this trial.
— Adam Reilly
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Update, 11:00 a.m.: Following her sister Raisat Suleimanova on the stand, Naida, a gas-station cashier living in Moscow, tearfully described Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — her cousin — as "my beloved brother."
When asked by the defense why she was feeling emotional she replied, "because I'm seeing my brother for the first time in so many years."
The Suleimanova family is related to Tsarnaev’s mother and is from the Republic of Dagestan. The last time they saw Tsarnaev was in 2002, when he was a boy on his way to the USA to set up residence in Cambridge.
The testimony from Tsarnaev family members is meant to bolster the defense argument that Dzhokhar was led by his older brother, Tamerlan, and to paint a softer, more wholesome, kinder picture of the defendant who was convicted of bombing the Boston Marathon and killing four people.
But the government on cross-examination Monday morning asked Suleimanova, "You would agree that the bombing of people is not an act of kindness?"
Tsarnaevs mother, Zubeidat, is not in Boston. Suleimanova is the first of five Tsarnaev-clan witnesses who will take the stand today on behalf of the 21-year-old defendant.
— Phillip Martin
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The penalty phase of the Boston Marathon bombing trial continues Monday in US District Court. The trial recessed early Thursday after a juror became ill. Now Judge O'Toole is considering replacing that juror with one of six alternates.
Twenty-four defense witnesses have taken the stand so far. At least five more are scheduled yo take the stand today — with testimony expected from members of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's extended family from the Caucasus region of Russia.
Tsarnaev's parents are not among the group being guarded by 16 FBI agents in Boston. But they are believed to be relatives of Tsarnaevs mother, possibly including her sister Patimat Sulei-ma-nova.
All five witnesses will likely be questioned for at least half an hour because they will require Russian-language translators on the stand beside them.
One of the Russian witnesses was observed last Thursday wearing an ankle monitoring bracelet for reasons the FBI would not explain.
Last week the defense called on former teachers and classmates of Tsarnaev, who all painted a sympathetic portrait of the young man who would become the Boston Marathon Bomber.
This week, the defense will use the Tsarnaev family to fill in the details of his brother Tamerlan’s visit to Russia in January 2012.
Defense lawyers are trying to show how Tamerlan’s militant Islamic beliefs may have impacted his younger brother, who they say, up to that point, was more interested in Kendrick Lamar’s hip-hop than radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki sermons.
The prosecution, however, is arguing that Dzhokhar and Tamerlan were equal partners in the bombings, the killing of MIT police officer Sean Collier, and the shootout in Watertown.
— Phillip Martin
