WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th May, 2022) Abdulaki Todashev, father of Ibragim Todashev who was killed by the FBI shortly after the 2013 Boston marathon bombings, has come to the United States to obtain his son's belongings nine years after the tragic event, family's attorney Hassan Shibly told Sputnik on Thursday.
"The father came on Tuesday night. I picked him up from the airport. He's staying with me. I'm a lawyer and the family representative," Shibly said. "He came to collect the belongings of his son, the bloody clothes that Ibragim was wearing when he was killed, and the evidence that was taken by the FBI and withheld from the family for nine years. So, after nine years of fighting, we finally got the belongings and the evidence back, so he's here to collect."
However, Shibly specified that the authorities have returned all of Ibragim's belongings but not all of the evidence about what happened in the incident.
"For example, if there was any audio or video recordings of what happened, they gave the text communication between the agents so I do believe we are getting the evidence as it relates to the belongings of Ibragim but the government has failed to turn over all the evidence of what happened in that incident," Shibly said.
Ibragim Todashev was a friend of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev. On May 22, 2013, FBI agent Aaron McFarlane fatally shot Todashev during a police interview in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings and a triple homicide in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 2011.
Shibly pointed out that the government has resorted to a tremendous amount of secrecy regarding the killing of his son and "this is the first time we're seeing this evidence in nine years."
"It is unfortunate that the government has written laws really to protect itself," he said.
Shibly explained that Abduraki Todashev never got his day in court and never had the opportunity to confront his son's killer.
"The legal proceedings never gave the family the opportunity to review the evidence. Never gave the family the opportunity to challenge and confront the killer. The legal proceeding never got into the merits of what happened," Shibly said. "In fact, the government accounts often contradicted itself and contradicted the evidence."
Shibly noted that the legal proceedings were mostly about whether the family is allowed to sue the government when its agents kill someone and there were about 150 FBI involved shootings.
"There's never been accountability. The government's never allowed anyone to hold itself accountable in terms of the FBI taking the life of anyone," he said.
Shilby also said the Todashev family is still grieving and outraged because they never got the opportunity to get justice.
"So they will continue to raise awareness about what happened to their son, even if their options in terms of US courts are limited," he said.
Shibly underscored that the Todashev family maintains their son was innocent.
"You know, the government's never given evidence to the contrary, and the government has never presented any evidence that what they did was justifiable," Shilby said. "In fact, the evidence contradicts that but we never got to litigate that because the government shielded itself"
The US Federal government has written laws to shield its agents and to shield itself from accountability when it comes to the killing of civilians by federal agents, he said.
"So this is why it's so important that maybe in the United States, the fight in the courts of law is over, but the fight in the courts of public opinion will continue and it's important that we raise awareness about what happened to Ibragim and push for change so that this does not happen again to anyone," he said.
When asked whether the family will continue to legally pursue the case their son, Shibly said, "Unfortunately, over the last nine years, the family's really exhausted all of the available legal options in the United States."
"At least as it comes to within the United States, it doesn't seem that there are any options left for the family to pursue. And that's a reflection of how the US law is written to shield federal agents even when it comes to the use of lethal force," he said.
Shibly noted that Todashev traveled from Grozny, Chechnya, to the US,at his expense to collect his son's belongings, will be staying in the country till Saturday morning.
In November 2020, A US court dismissed an excessive force lawsuit filed by the Todashev family against FBI agent McFarlane.
McFarlane was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing after a Florida prosecutor and the US Justice Department ruled separately that he acted in self-defense.
Dzhokar Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, was killed in a gunfight with police four days after the bombings.
