Kazakh Man Linked to Boston Suspect 'Normal Teen'

(AP) Kazakh man linked to Boston suspect ‘normal teen’
By LEILA SARALAYEVA
Associated Press
ALMATY, Kazakhstan
Former teachers of one of the students from Kazakhstan arrested in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings described him on Friday as an easygoing teenager who distinguished himself mainly by his failing grades in math and science.

Dias Kadyrbayev was a university friend of bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He and another 19-year-old student from oil-rich Kazakhstan, Azamat Tazhayakov, have been charged with trying to destroy evidence by allegedly disposing of a backpack and laptop computer taken from Tsarnaev’s dorm room after learning he was a suspect in the attack.

When he was 14 and 15, Kadyrbayev attended a high school in Almaty, the business capital of Kazakhstan, for students gifted in mathematics.

According to school records, Kadyrbayev’s father was a top official in Kazakhstan’s postal service at the time.

His father, Murat Kadyrbayev, said in a brief television interview that his son never got into fights and wasn’t religious.

Kazakhstan, where most Muslims practice a moderate strain of Islam, has experienced less religious-based tension than other former Soviet nations in Central Asia. The past two years, however, have seen a surge in violence related to Islamist extremism, primarily in the west of the country.

The report said he was speaking from Atyrau, an oil producing center in western Kazakhstan.

Tazhayakov’s father is a prominent businessman in Atyrau, according to Kazakh media reports.

Another teacher at the school, Saule Zhamisheva, also said the young Kadyrbayev was kind and friendly.