WASHINGTON, July 12 (RIA Novosti) – The US federal court trying the case of alleged Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is investigating a secret recording of his first public court appearance that was posted on the website of Russian state-owned television network Rossiya-24 in violation of ban on video and photographs from the proceedings, US media reported.
The video appeared on the network’s website, Vesti.ru, on Thursday together with a report about Tsarnaev’s arraignment at the John Joseph Moakley US Courthouse, but the footage had been removed as of 4:30 p.m. EDT that same day, Boston.com reported.
“The Court is investigating the surreptitious recording of [Wednesday’s] arraignment that was made off a television monitor in a public overflow area,” a court official was cited by local Boston media as saying.
During the hearing, Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty to all 30 charges against him, including murder and using a weapon of mass destruction in connection with the deadly April 15 attack that left three people dead and more than 260 injured.
The arraignment generated massive attention in the news media and the public, who were anxious to get a glimpse of Tsarnaev for the first time since he was found bloodied and wounded hiding from police during a massive manhunt in the days following the twin bombing.
The court banned video cameras and photographers from the courtroom and said members of the news media who violate the order could lose their access to future proceedings.
“All photography and other recording in the courthouse is a clear violation of our rules and the conditions that restrict the issuance of our media credentials,” the court official was quoted by Boston.com as saying.
“When the investigation is complete, any member of the media that is found to be responsible for this recording will be subject to appropriate sanctions, which may include having their press credentials revoked,” the official added.
The grainy footage aired by Rossiya-24 shows Tsarnaev, wearing an orange jumpsuit and cast on his left hand, sitting at a table flanked by two defense lawyers and peering around the courtroom. The footage was still available on YouTube as of Friday morning on the US East Coast.
A spokesperson at Rossiya-24’s parent company, state-owned broadcaster VGTRK, told RIA Novosti that the footage made it onto the website accidentally.
“As soon as we saw the video, we took it down,” the spokesperson said.
Tsarnaev, 19, faces a 30-count indictment, including charges of killing a police officer at the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as police chased him and his brother, fellow suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, in a frantic manhunt days after the bombing.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during a shootout with police in the Boston suburb of Watertown, while Dzhokhar suffered nonfatal wounds and was apprehended on April 19.
Prosecutors in the case said they expect to call between 80 and 100 witnesses and that the trial will likely last three to four months.
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