Boston Marathon bombing suspect indicted

US prosecutors bring charges against Dzohkhar Tsarnaev for killing four people using weapon of mass destruction.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
The FBI released photos of Dzohkhar Tsarnaev after he was identified as suspect in the Boston bombing [AFP]

US prosecutors have brought charges against Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzohkhar Tsarnaev.

Tsarnaev, 19,  was indicted on charges of killing four people using a weapon of mass destruction.

He is one of two brothers accused of carrying out the April 15 attack, which killed three people and wounded more than 200.

The indictment includes 30 criminal counts, with 19 of those counts carrying the possibility of the death penalty.

The pair were accused of setting off two homemade pressure-cooker bombs amid a crowd of thousands of people at the race’s finish line.

They lay low for three days after the attack until the FBI on April 18 released photos of the suspects, hoping that the public could identify them.

That night they set out with five improvised explosive devices, a semiautomatic handgun, ammunition, a hunting knife and a machete.

The brothers used those weapons in a battle with police in Watertown, Massachusetts, outside Boston, and Dzhokhar ran over his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, with a car in the escape, officials said.

Tamerlan was killed in the gun battle.

The younger Tsarnaev, who was badly injured in that shootout, has been held in a prison hospital west of Boston since his capture on April 19.

A fourth victim, a university police officer, died in a gunfight with the pair four days later as authorities raced to capture them.

Source: News Agencies