Former in-law of Tsarnaev testifies

Testimony from Kazakhstan tells of influence of cleric

Boston — A former brother-in-law of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev testified Wednesday from Kazakhstan about the role of a conservative Muslim convert who steered Tsarnaev’s older brother toward a stricter version of Islam.

Elmirza Khozhugov, the former husband of Tsarnaev’s sister Ailina Tsarnaeva, testified on live video for the defense from Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan. The Tsarnaev family — ethnic Chechens — lived in the Dagestan region of Russia and in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan before moving to the United States when Dzhokhar was 8.

A federal jury will soon decide whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, should be executed or sentenced to life in prison for the April 15, 2013, bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 260.

The defense is trying to show that Dzhokhar was heavily influenced by his radicalized 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, whom they call the mastermind of the plot. Tamerlan was killed days after the bombing during a getaway attempt.

Khozhugov said the Muslim convert named Misha often visited the Tsarnaev apartment in Cambridge, Mass., to talk to Tamerlan about Islam.

“I wouldn’t call it formally a lesson, but he was teaching him and suggesting books to read . . . expressing his own views about that faith to Tamerlan,” Khozhugov said. He said Tamerlan told him he quit boxing, stopped taking acting classes and stopped playing and listening to music after Misha said those things were not appropriate in Islam.

Khozhugov also described the close-knit relationship between the brothers. He said Tamerlan often couldn’t find the words to express how much he loved Dzhokhar and how he was willing to do anything to help Dzhokhar succeed.

Dzhokhar, in return, adored Tamerlan, Khozhugov said.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s lawyers told the jury that the oldest brother in Chechen families traditionally takes on the role of decision-maker if the father is incapacitated. Defense testimony has said their father, Anzor Tsarnaev, had post-traumatic stress disorder since at least 2003 as well as physical ailments.