Friend of Boston bombers charged with obstruction

A man who knew the brothers suspected of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings has been charged with obstructing the investigation.

Khairullozhon Matanov, a legal resident of the US originally from Kyrgyzstan, destroyed, altered and falsified records in a federal investigation, and made false statements in a federal investigation, federal prosecutors said.

Matanov, 23, is not accused of participating in the April 2013 bombings that killed three people and injured more than 260, or of knowing about them in advance.

Matanov knew Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and realised the FBI would want to talk with him because he shared their “philosophical justification for violence,” prosecutors said.

He talked to the brothers on numerous occasions after the bombings, and even took them out to dinner the day of the explosions, they said.

“In the days following the bombings, Matanov continued to express support for the bombings, although later that week he said that maybe the bombings were wrong,” the indictment said.

He tried to contact the Tsarnaev brothers after he saw media reports identifying them as the suspects and he repeatedly lied to investigators about the extent of his friendship with them, prosecutors said.