Tsarnaev cries as aunt takes stand
By Samantha Lavien
For the first time since his trial began, convicted marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, showed emotion in the courtroom on Monday.
The 21-year-old was seen wiping away tears after his mother’s sister sobbed uncontrollably on the stand. She was one of five family members who traveled from Russia to testify during this penalty phase.
That aunt, Patimat Suleimanov, was so overcome with emotion when she was called to testify that she couldn’t stop crying. She only answered a few basic questions before the judge allowed her to step down and compose herself.
Tsarnaev also blew a kiss to Suleimanov when he left the courtroom for the lunch break.
Suleimanov was not called to finish her testimony on Monday.
The 21-year-old’s cousin, Raisat Suleimanov, was the first of his relatives to testify. Early on she said of Tsarnaev’s involvement in the 2013 bombings and attacks, “I categorically reject what he did. It was a great tragedy of course.”
That cousin described Tsarnaev as a “sunny child.” Raisat Suleimanov told jurors, “I don’t think there was a person in our whole family that didn’t love him.”
That description of him being a shy, nice boy carried through from the other relatives who testified about what he was like as a child as well.
Another cousin of Tsarnaev’s, Naida Sulemanov, spoke in a very soft voice while she testified. She cried on the stand describing the changes she witnessed in Tamerlan and in her aunt who is Tsarnaev’s mother.
Other points addressed in testimony included the Tsarnaev’s nomadic lifestyle.
Tsarnaev left Russia at age eight for the United States. There were many tears as relatives saw him for the first time in person in more than a decade.
© WLNE-TV 2015
