Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appears before the court, pleads innocence

(Image source from: Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appears before the court)

In his maiden appearance before the Federal Court, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the key accused in Boston Marathon bombing pleaded innocence inside the courtroom on Wednesday.

The 19-year-old claimed “not guilty” before a packed Federal Court on Wednesday, saying that he was not accountable for all the 30 charges he was booked inder.

Federal prosecutors allege that Dzhokhar and his brother Tamerlan, hailing from Chechnya, should be given death penalty, if convicted. The brothers have been accused of orchestrating the blasts that annihilated three people and left over 260 civilians severely injured.

‪Tsarnaev was taken into custody on 19 April.

Initial findings allege that the brother spent months ploying the attack on the 117th Boston Marathon. The brothers have also been accused of  booting up extremist literature from the internet like the first volume of Al-Qaida's magazine -  Inspire that contains step-by-step instructions on how to build a pressure-cooker bomb.

The FBI held them as suspects after CCTV footage showed them armed with weapons, driving towards  Massachusetts Institute of Technology university campus, where the killed a campus police officer, Sean Collier.

During the fracas, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev older brother, Tamerlan died.

Image Source: The Independent, Boston Herald

AW: Suchorita Dutta