Dressed in a black suit and tie and surrounded by two dozen family members and supporters, a close friend of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty today to charges that he lied to investigators during a terrorism probe.
The arraignment of Robel Phillipos, a 19-year-old former UMass-Dartmouth student from Cambridge, who is free on bail, came after he was indicted about two weeks ago when negotiations to resolve his case collapsed.
Two other former UMass-Dartmouth students, both from Kazakhstan, face charges in the same indictment. Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, who had already been charged in an earlier version of the indictment, showed up in court again to repeat their pleas of not guilty.
Assistant US Attorney John A. Capin said he expected to call as many as 20 witnesses, and a trial could last two weeks. The case was continued to Oct. 29.
Prosecutors allege that on two occasions in April, Phillipos lied about what he was doing in the hours after federal agents broadcast photos of the alleged suspects.
Prosecutors allege that Phillipos told numerous lies before acknowledging, among other things, that he and the Kazakh students had entered Tsarnaev’s dorm room on the evening of April 18 and removed several items, including Tsarnaev’s laptop and a backpack containing fireworks and Vaseline, which they believed had something to do with making bombs.
Kadybayev and Tazhayakov face more serious charges of obstruction of justice because they are accused of disposing items relevant to the investigation, rather than just lying to investigators. Federal authorities say they tossed the backpack into a dumpster behind their off-campus apartment in New Bedford, and did nothing when trash haulers took it away.
The Kazakh students face a maximum of 20 years for the most serious count they face involving obstruction of justice. Phillipos faces a maximum of eight years for each count of making false statements to the investigators.
Phillipos’s attorneys emphasized that Friday’s proceeding did not reflect “any new development in the case,†other than that a grand jury had handed up an indictment. Phillipos, whose family is originally from Ethiopia, declined to answer any questions from the media. He was surrounded by family, friends and relatives who hugged him after the proceedings.
“In the end, it will be clear that this prosecution should never have been brought in the first place,†said Derege Demissie and Susan Church, two Cambridge attorneys, in a prepared statement.
Outside the courtroom, Nicholas Wooldridge, an attorney for Tazhayakov, said the case is weak and based on interviews by FBI officials that were never recorded. Because Wooldridge’s train was delayed Friday, his client’s arraignment was held separately later in the day after the one for Phillipos and Kadyrbayev was completed.
“This is a case where you have a government that has rushed into things,†he said.
Patricia Wen can be reached at patricia.wen@globe.com.
