Boston Bombing Suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Has Online Following
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Facebook(NEW YORK) — Boston has rallied around its police and victims of the marathon bombing, but there are thousands of people who are rallying around Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man accused of carrying out the atrocity.
“We truly believe he has been set up and that there is not enough evidence to incriminate him,” said the Facebook group “Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Is Innocent,” which has more than 12,000 members.
On Twitter, the hashtag #FreeJahar, the nickname Tsarnaev goes by, has gained traction. A Change.org petition addressed to President Obama has garnered more than 6,000 signatures, saying Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who died in a gun battle with police, are “wrongfully accused of something they did not do.”
Dzhokhar was read his rights and charged on Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
Anzor Tsarnaev, the father of the accused bombers, said that his sons were “set up” and that they are “very nice kids” who have no experience with weapons and explosives.
It’s a conclusion many of Dzhokhar’s supporters have also reached.
At the center of the Twitter movement to exonerate the teenager is Troy Crossley, 20, of Chelsea, Mass., who said he is a friend of Dzhokhar.
Crossley did not return a request for an interview, however he has been one of Dzhokhar’s most prolific supporters, rousing an online base of people who believe there’s more to the story than what federal investigators laid out in a charging document on Monday.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio