'It wasn't blood... it was PAINT': Boston bombers' defiant mother launches bizarre defense of her 'framed' sons

Father Anzor Tsarnaev says he will travel to America to bury son Tamerlan - but does not yet have a plane ticket

Mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva debating whether to travel to U.S. because she faces federal shoplifting charges

Zubeidat described 'Misha' - who has been pinpointed as a source of radicalization for her son - as a 'very nice man'



The mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects ranted that her sons were being framed for the terrorist attack, describing the scene of carnage as a 'really big play' with 'paint instead of blood'.

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva was on the verge of hysteria when she told a press conference on Thursday that she does not accept that her sons carried out the attacks in Boston on April 15 which left three people dead and 264 injured.



She gestured wildly, making a gesture of her hands being cuffed, as she sat alongside her husband Anzor. She said that she regretted living in the U.S.

Tsarnaeva added: 'America took my kids away from me. I’m sure my kids were not involved in anything.'



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Defiant: Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of the two Boston bombing suspects, speaks at a news conference as the suspects' father, Anzor Tsarnaev listens in Makhachkala

Emotional: Anzor Tsarnaev (left) and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, parents of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev - the two men suspected of carrying out the Boston bombings - take part in a news conference on Thursday Hysteria: Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of the two Boston bombing suspects, speaks at a news conference as her sister-in-law, Mayam, looks on

Staying put: Anzor Tsarnaev says he is postponing a trip to the United States because of poor health

Tsarnaeva earlier told CNN that she believed that the Boston marathon atrocity was a 'really big play' with 'paint instead of blood'.



The father of the suspected bombers Anzor Tsarnaev told the same press conference that he would travel from Russia to the United States to bury his elder son.



The parents sat side by side in the southern Russian city of Makhachkala and denied their sons had planted the bombs at the Boston marathon, saying they had been framed.

Their other son Dzhokhar, 19, remains under police guard in a Boston hospital and is facing terrorism charges which could result in the death penalty.



Banging the table in front of him, Anzor said: 'I am going to the United States. I want to say that I am going there to see my son, to bury the older one.

'I don't have any bad intentions. I don't plan to blow up anything.

Enraged: Anzor Tsarnaev and his wife Zubeidat gesture at the gathered journalists at the press conference alongside the bombing suspects' aunt Patimat Suleymanova

Wild claims: Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, mother of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, (pictured at a press conference on Thursday) claims that the Boston Marathon bombings were one big play with 'paint instead of blood'

'I am not angry at anyone. I want to go find out the truth,' said Anzor, who took off his sunglasses only when photographers asked him to.

He said he would go as soon as possible but that he had not yet bought a plane ticket.



Tsarnaeva said she was still thinking over whether to travel to the U.S. Her hesitation to travel may be based on the fact that she was charged with shoplifting last summer and is concerned that she could be arrested.

However Tsarnaeva said that she had been assured by lawyers that she would not be.



The Tsarnaev family emigrated to the U.S. a decade ago, but both parents returned to Russia last year.

Zubeidat also described a figure known only as 'Misha' - who has been pinpointed as a source of radicalization for her son Tamerlan.

She said that he was a 'very nice man', of Armenian origin and living in Boston. 'Misha' is also apparently a convert to the Islamic faith.

Suspects: Dzhokhar, right, and Tamerlan Tsarnaev are accused of planting the Boston bombs at the historic race on April 15

It is almost a week since the Boston bombers' reign of terror came to an end.



The suspects' father has already been interviewed by Russian and American authorities - and will face further interviews when he arrives in the U.S.

Speaking out on Wednesday, Mrs Tsarnaeva launched into a bizarre rant in which she claims she does not care if she or her youngest son are killed by U.S. authorities.

Their eldest son, Tamerlan, 26, died after a shootout with police in Watertown, Massachusetts last Friday, while her youngest, Dzhokhar, 19, is in hospital recovering from a bullet wound to the neck.

'If they are going to kill him, I don't care,' she told CNN of Dzhokhar .



'My oldest one is killed, so I don't care. I don't care is my youngest one is going to be killed today. I want the world to hear this. And I don't care if I am going to get killed too. And I will say Allahu akbar!'

While Dzhokhar was reportedly injured from a self-inflicted gun shot wound as he sought to hide from police in a boat parked in a backyard, his mother said she does not believe this account.

'You know what I think? I think now they will try to make my Dzhokhar guilty because they took away his voice, his ability to talk to the world... They did not want the truth to come out.'



She added that the only reason her sons were targeted was because they were Muslim, adding that she saw footage of Tamerlan being killed 'really cruelly.'

U.S. authorities are on their way to speak with Zubeidat Tsarnaeva in the aftermath of the bombings.

Busted: Mrs Tsarnaeva, 45, was arrested last year after she allegedly stole $1,600 worth of clothing from a Massachusetts Lord & Taylor store

ABC News reported on Tuesday that Mrs Tsarnaeva failed to show up at a court hearing stemming from a July 2012 arrest.

If she returns to the U.S. to visit her hospitalized son or make burial arrangements for the other, she could be arrested on an outstanding warrant.

Mrs Tsarnaeva, 45, allegedly stole $1,600 worth of clothes from a Massachusetts Lord & Taylor store.

She was charged with two counts of malicious/wanton damage and defacement to property after allegedly swiping the merchandise from the retailer's Natick, Massachusetts location in June 2012.

She was due in court on October 25 for a hearing in the case, but never showed up.

The Lord & Taylor location is not the same as the one on Boyleston Street in Boston, where a surveillance camera captured what police say is her younger son dropping a pressure cooker bomb that was hidden inside a backpack.

The family's lawyer Heda Saratova, asked for the family to be left alone and said that the parents had just seen pictures of the body of their elder son and were not up to speaking with anyone.

Questioning: Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, mother of Boston bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar, leaves her home for the first time on Tuesday in Dagestan with an unidentified man Grief: Zubeidat Tsarnaeva is pictured outside her home in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim province in Russia's Caucasus

'The mother is in very bad shape,' Saratova said. 'She watches the video and cries.'



The images, taken by a resident of Watertown, Massachusetts and posted on his blog , appear to show the Tsarnaev brothers sheltering behind a vehicle and taking aim at police officers.

They are reportedly seen running to a car for more supplies before hauling out a pressure cooker bomb they then detonated, filling the street with smoke.

The photographs, taken on the eyewitness' phone from a third-floor bedroom overlooking the scene, are the first images giving insight into the fraught battle that left one brother dead.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev then jumped in the car and barreled towards the police barricade, making a narrow escape. Authorities said that he ran over his brother Tamerlan.



Their mother told Channel 4 on Tuesday that her sons had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks. She said: 'What happened is a terrible thing but I know my kids have nothing to do with this. I know it, I am mother.' She added to CNN that she had spoken to Tamerlan after the bombings and he told her he missed her and loved her, and she said her 'loving' son even inquired about the cat.

The trip by the U.S. team was made possible because of Russian government cooperation with the FBI investigation into the bombing at the Boston Marathon. Also on Tuesday, the bombers' sister, Ailena and Bella Tsarnaev, released a statement to the media, saying that they 'don't have the answers' about their brothers' alleged crimes.

Battle: The eyewitness said the men ran to the green sedan, left, for more supplies such as explosives

Threat: In another image, a red circle shows what the eyewitness believed to be a pressure cooker bomb

Taken down: Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a gunfight with police on April 19. Dzhokhar, who was injured, was captured that evening

The statement read: 'Our heart goes out the victims of last week's bombing. It saddens us to see so many innocent people hurt after such a callous act.



'As a family, we are absolutely devastated by the sense of loss and sorrow this has caused.

'We don't have any answers but we look forward to a thorough investigation and hope to learn more. We ask the media to respect our privacy during this difficult time.'



The mother is from Dagestan, while the suspects' father is from neighboring Chechnya.



Their sons had spent little time in either place before the family moved to the U.S. a decade ago, but the elder son was in Russia for six months last year.

Shielded: Katherine Russell, the widow of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, leaves her lawyer's office on Tuesday

The father of the two Boston bombing suspects will apparently travel to the U.S. later this week in order to seek 'justice and the truth'.

Anzor Tsarnaev says he has 'lots of questions for the police' and is keen 'to clear up many things' when he arrives from his home in Makhachkala in Russia.

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