This undated photo added on April 18, 2013 to the VK page of Dias Kadyrbayev shows, from left, Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, from Kazakhstan, with Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Times Square in New York. — AP

BOSTON — US officials on Wednesday identified and charged three new suspects they accused of interfering with the investigation into last month’s fatal bombing at the Boston Marathon, according to court papers.



Authorities charged two men, Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, with conspiracy to obstruct justice by throwing away a backpack containing fireworks and a laptop computer belonging to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of two brothers suspected of carrying out the April 15 attack.



US prosecutors also charged a third man, Robel Phillipos, with making false statements to investigators, according to documents filed in federal court.



Two law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation say two of the three people newly arrested in the Boston Marathon bombing case are originally from Kazakhstan and were friendly with the main suspect.



The two have been held in a county jail for more than a week on allegations that they violated their student visas while attending the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is originally from Russia. The one man criminally charged with the bombing, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is being held in a prison medical center.



The charges carry the possibility of the death penalty. His older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in a gunfight with police.



The lawyer, Robert Stahl, said his client was “not a target” of the bombing investigation, but declined to comment on any other specifics. He said his client had “cooperated fully” with investigators and “wants to go home to Kazakhstan.” Meanwhile, relatives of the dead suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing will claim his body now that his wife has agreed to release it, an uncle said as officials in both Washington and Russia deepened their investigations into him and his ties.The body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, has been at the medical examiner’s office in Massachusetts since he died after a gunfight with authorities more than a week ago.



Amato DeLuca, the attorney for Tamerlan’s widow, Katherine Russell, said on Tuesday that his client had just learned that the medical examiner was ready to release Tsarnaev’s body and that she wants it released to his side of the family.



Police said Tsarnaev ran out of ammunition before 19-year-old Dzhokhar dragged his body under a vehicle while fleeing the scene. His cause of death has been determined but will not be made public until his remains are claimed.



Meanwhile, Spokesman at the Saudi Ministry of Interior denied the British Daily Mail claim that the competent authorities in Saudi Arabia had any information on Boston blast suspects or that it had warned the US authorities in this regard. – Agencies