Federal files: Marathon bomber passed United States citizenship test

The attack saw bombs made from pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails and other shrapnel placed at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

The Department of Homeland Security has finally released 651 pages of previously confidential files on Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his friend Ibragim Todashev to The Boston Globe , but the files are heavily redacted and only 206 pages were released in their entirety. He carried out the attacks, which killed three people and injured over 260, with his younger brother Dzhokhar.

The files also contained information on Ibragim Todashev, who was shot dead by police officers during an interrogation in Florida a month after the attack.

Federal records obtained by the Globe show Tsarnaev, an ethnic Chechen who emigrated to the USA from Russian Federation in 2003, denied any links to terrorism and swore his allegiance to the US just months before the bombings.

His brother, Dzhokhar (joh-HAHR’), a naturalized US citizen, was caught, tried, convicted and sentenced to death. They had so little income that the government waived their immigration application fees, officials said. The redacted records show Tamerlan’s application was delayed, but he also wanted to change his name to that of an Islamic scholar, something the Globe says should have sparked an investigation. The documents did not reveal the reasons for the delay. Tsarnaev for domestic assault and Todashev for a “criminal road-rage incident”. He applied again and was issued a green card in February 2013.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said the cases were processed correctly, according to The Boston Globe.