The father of the suspected Boston bombers insisted in an interview published on Monday that his sons Tamerlan and Dzhokhar were innocent and could not have carried out the bombings.

Their plans for the future had included returning to work in Russia, Anzor Tsarnaev told the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily, adding that he hoped to travel to the US where his younger son Dzhokhar is in a hospital after being captured with serious injuries.

The men's father argued that the attacks were somehow orchestrated by the FBI, who he said "kept my Tamerlan constantly under surveillance".

"Tamerlan was driving him to school when they started shooting at them," Anzor claimed.

"This is a set up, a political order, a Hollywood show."

He also insisted on Sunday that Tamerlan came to Dagestan and Chechnya in last year just to visit relatives and had nothing to do with the militants operating in the volatile part of Russia, despite investigators now focusing on the six-month stay.

AFP - AP

(China Daily 04/23/2013 page12)