“Tragedy Made us a Family”: Todashev widow visits Tsarnaevs in Dagestan

Reni Todashev and Zubeidat Tsarnaev comfort each other in Makhachkala, Dagestan

Zubeidat and Anzor Tsarnaev’s lives were changed forever April 19, 2013 when they learned their eldest son Tamerlan was killed by Boston police and their younger son Dhzokhar (also called Jahar) was severely wounded and in prison, accused of bombing the Boston marathon.

Reni Todashev’s life was changed forever on May 22, when she heard the news that her husband Ibragim had been killed by the FBI during a related interrogation in their Orlando, Florida home.

Ibragim Todashev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev only knew each other from the gym and were not close friends, but Reni travelled to Dagestan on July 31 to visit the Tsarnaevs after burying her love in Chechnya. They had never met before. The Muslim Observer asked Reni what made her decide to visit.

“Tragedy made us a family and, just like I felt that I wanted to be in the courtroom – same here,” she replied. “We cried so much there’s just no more tears left.” She described the Tsarnaevs as a “thoughtful, blessed, loving each other couple.”

“We just prayed for Jahar, and for our boys who were killed by the FBI. [Zubeidat] is a very strong woman and I have learned from her a lot. I am strong but she gave me more power to fight. She’s my family as well. That tragedy connected us. She lives with her husband Anzor. I love them as my parents. That pain they have no one can feel. That pain in their hearts and eyes only Allah knows. They lost one son and another kid in jail for no reason. Worst part no one can do anything but wait. Time is killing,” said Reni, who was working in Atlanta, Georgia at the time of her husband’s murder.

Ibragim came to the US to study. In Russia he was an English translator. He met Reni through a mutual friend in May of 2010, and they got married in Boston in July of 2010.

“We had always dreamed to go home together and we did but in different sections of the plane,” Reni replied sadly. “I was the passenger, he was the baggage.”

“I had problems with shipping the body,” Reni told TMO. “Delta company refused to take my husband’s body. They say it’s a business decision, they can’t jeopardize their reputation. I still found a company who took my husband’s body.”

“At the airport they have marked me when I was getting my boarding pass. Then they took me to search me… of course didn’t find anything. Of course I’m a Muslim widow – too dangerous.”
Todashev’s June 20 funeral was “pretty big,” she said.

Reni’s sister Yana Manukyan told supporters, “Our mom (Ibragim’s mother in law) works for the US Army. She has health problems, she had a  few surgeries and no longer can work for the Army due to her health condition. She has already completed all the documents for quitting the Army, she has few months left before she stops serving. The FBI froze her files her files and is trying to cancel the process, they have cancelled her benefits. FBI is now doing everything to our family to stop us to live a life. They want us to stop Ibragim’s investigation. FBI doesn’t want us to continue fighting to find out the truth of what happened. They want us to forget what happened by shutting down our family with problems. And they think that they will make us to forget what they have done to Ibra. Why is FBI messing with our family? They are making it more obvious they are guilty of murder. This has to stop. They have to give us the autopsy report… they have to give us the money they took from his house… they have to give back the personal stuff that belongs to Reni and Ibragim.”

The FBI took many things from their home: thousands in cash, all their personal identity documents, personal clothing, shoes, all electronics (phones, laptops, iPads), the kitchen table, a decorative sword, saying it’s evidence, “God knows evidence of What,” remarked Yana.

“I’m so not lettin that go,” Reni told TMO.

“They were following Ibragim everyday everywhere he goes, following in civilian cars,” Yana said. “No one was at the house of the murder day. Hussein Taramov came with him but they didn’t let him in. He and another local FBI agent Chris were outside of the apartment 4 hours, from 7:30pm until 11:30pm. Three Boston agents went inside with Ibragim to his house. At 11:30pm a Boston agent came out and told the local agent and Hussein that they can go. Hussein wanted to stay but they told him he can’t even wait in the parking lot.”

“We can only guess what was going on there, until there is an official investigation,” Ibragim’s father, Abdulbaki Todashev said.

The FBI claims that right before they killed him, Todashev was about to confess to an unsolved 2011 triple murder in Boston, but there were no questions raised related to this issue. Ibragim was in Atlanta at the time of the Boston murders, Reni said.

Reni said she and her mother in Savannah, Georgia were also visited by FBI agents that same evening. They were only questioned about Ibragim’s relationship with Tamerlan, who had called him a few days before his death to inquire how Ibragim was doing after knee surgery.

Photos of their home, published in Russian media, [http://kavpolit.com/eksklyuzivnye-fotografii-s-mesta-ubijstva-ibragima-todasheva/]  show blood near the front door. Ibragim was clearly trying to flee when he was killed after several hours of interrogation. His eye was badly bruised and indented, said Reni. FBI agents hit him hard with something before they shot him several times in the heart, one time in the liver and a final “kill shot” to the back of the head.

Reni told Russian Times that there were no shots to the arms or legs. The FBI was clearly trying to kill Ibragim, not to subdue him. The FBI is preventing officials from releasing the autopsy report.

Ibrahim’s father Abdulbaki Todashev called the earlier claims that Ibragim was shot attempting to attack an FBI agent “absurd,” saying four or five police and FBI officers could have easily handled such an attack without needing to kill his son, who was still limping from surgery.

Reni told Russian Times, “I think by killing Ibrahim they make it more suspicious about the bombing incident… They killed one brother Tamerlan, so they need somebody who’s alive, who can speak, so they can tell them what happened, if they was thinking Ibrahim is involved in that, but they strangely killed him, it means they were not trying to see what actually happened… He’s definitely not a witness. He didn’t know anything, but they are trying to connect him with the Boston bombing.”

Meanwhile, the surviving Tsarnaev brother, who didn’t used to practice regular prayers, fasted this Ramadan in prison. “Mama Zubi” told supporters to send him religious books: “Jahar feels better reading something about Islam! It brings his spirit up and helps him to become stronger.”

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Faces Accusers

Family members of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev leave the federal courthouse following the arraignment of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Boston, Massachusetts July 10, 2013. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty to committing the worst mass-casualty attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, a crime that could bring the death penalty. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

There was “pin-drop silence” in the courtroom as the surviving Boston marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev took the stand during his first pre-trial hearing on July 10, 2013. A crying baby held by Tsarnaev’s sister pierced the silence. Watching the trial were about 30 people representing the victims’ families, as well as a row of family members and supporters of the defendant. The grand jury indictment by the FBI in coordination with federal and local authorities charged Tsarnaev with 30 counts of federal crimes including using a weapon of mass destruction and killing a police officer.

Represented by Federal attorneys Miriam Conrad and William Fick with input from Attorney Judy Clarke and Prof. David Clarke, Dzhokhar pled “Not Guilty” to all charges. Reporter Pam Gelly describes: 

“Assistant US Attorney William Weinreb… continues reading through groups of charges: possession and use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence resulting in death; carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury; bombing of a place of public use resulting in death.

“Not Guilty,” Tsarnaev says again. More charges are read.

“Not Guilty,” he says and rubs his mouth.

“Not Guilty,” clenching his hands together.

“Not Guilty.” He says it seven times.

The judge explains that the United States will bring 80 to 100 witnesses to the trial. It will take 3 to 4 months, starting on September 23 at 10 am.”

The hearing was presided over by Judge Marianne Bowler.  Time will tell if Tsarnaev will settle for a plea bargain or if he will fight for his innocence in court. If the case goes to trial, Judge George O’Toole, who convicted Tarek Mehanna to 17.5 years for “material support for terrorism” on account of internet speech, will be presiding. Attorney General Eric Holder will decide whether Dzhokhar will get the death penalty, if convicted.

According to witnesses, Tsarnaev, who wore an orange jumpsuit, kept turning around to look at his family and friends in a row behind him. At one point he waved at his sisters, whereupon one of them burst into tears. He appeared to be heavily medicated and not entirely aware of the seriousness of the proceedings. Friends say he was not acting like himself. According to his wrestling teammates Tsarnaev, who went to high school in the US and was thoroughly Americanized, spoke in court with an uncharacteristically heavy Russian accent that his friends called “weird.”
A former schoolmate and wrestling teammate said Tsarnaev looked tired and “beat up.”

“His face was swollen on one side. He looked exhausted.”

Brittany Gillis, who went to UMass Dartmouth at the same time as Tsarnaev, was inside the courtroom. “It was very nerve wracking,” she said. “His family was crying as soon as he walked in. And the victims’ families were very upset. You could just tell they were upset just by seeing him. His family was crying and he kept looking back at his family. It seemed like he was very nervous.”

A small rally in support of Dzhokhar Tsnarnaev and suspicious of the government gathered outside the courthouse. At least one protester wore an “Anonymous” mask.

There is certainly reason to doubt the veracity of government accusations – and if Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev really did use homemade bombs to kill and injure hundreds of Boston marathon spectators, there is good reason to suspect FBI and CIA involvement. Some years back, when Dzhokhar’s brother Tamerlan applied for a travel visa to visit relatives, Russian authorities reportedly asked the CIA to investigate the Muslim family, whose female members had recently started wearing hijab. The brothers had met with the FBI multiple times in the two years before the marathon bombing. Their mother Zubeida Tsarnaev, who was also reportedly on a government watchlist, said the FBI was closely scrutinizing her son’s online activity. 

It will be interesting to see if government prosecutor Carmen Ortiz will provide proof of Tsarnaevs’ criminal wrongdoings, or if she will resort to the cheap tactic of using “secret evidence” against the accused. Other than wild media stories about the manhunt that resulted in the cities of Boston, Cambridge and Watertown being shut down under martial law, all the public has to go on is surveillance camera footage showing Dzhokhar and his brother Tamerlan walking peacefully through the crowd at the Boston marathon wearing light backpacks.

All we know for sure is that the police shot the brothers multiple times, killing Tamerlan while he was handcuffed in police custody, and severely wounding the unarmed Dzhokhar in the process of capturing him.

Circulating on Twitter is a rumor stating that, according to the wife of a Boston police officer, “all the cops took turns beating the crap out of him… jumped on his chest and everything.”

The 19 year old immigrant was aggressively interrogated for 18 hours and pressured to confess without a lawyer present after arriving at the hospital with multiple bullet wounds upon his arrest. It looks like someone broke his arm rather recently, as he appeared in court with a new cast on his arm. However, the defense was not permitted to discuss anything about police brutality.

In an interesting twist of events, the proceedings of the secret hearing were illegally videotaped by someone standing behind the court camera and aired by a television station in Russia. Grainy cell phone photos from inside the courtroom showing the thin, young, pensive looking man seated next to his lawyer, were also circulated widely online via social media.

The intense international interest in this court case is unique for a US “Muslim terrorist” prosecution in that there are so many vocal advocates insisting on his innocence and demanding a fair trial – balancing the huge number of unquestioningly pro-establishment American citizens ready for another public hanging of a foreign Muslim.

This time, the public wants to know what’s really going on. If the Boston marathon bombing was really simply carried out by two youths playing with homemade explosives, why is that being treated as a federal terrorism case rather than a local violent crime under the jurisdiction of Boston police?

Did the Tsarnaevs do it?  If yes, they probably did not act alone. It is important not to let this kid become a scapegoat to cover up for a deeper government conspiracy.