The Boston bombing

Boston Suspect's Aunt - My Nephews Are Innocent

The aunt of the two suspects in the Boston bombings says she doesn't believe they were involved in the crime and says the FBI has no evidence other than pictures of the two young men walking on the street near the finish line.

Maret Tsarnaeva, who lives in Toronto, told CBC News by phone Friday that she hadn't yet contacted her brother Anzor, 46, who is the father of the two men, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

"My nephews cannot be part of this terrible, horrible act that was committed in the streets of Boston," she said.

"I know these two nephews — smart boys, good boys — they have no motive for that. They have no ideas to be going to this kind of act. It's just not the case, it cannot be true."

Tsarnaeva said she has lived in Canada since 1996 and had studied at the University of Manitoba. She said she hasn't seen her nephews for five or six years.

However, she said she spoke to the oldest, 26-year-old Tamerlan, two years ago when his daughter was born, and then again a year ago.

She said Tamerlan is married to a woman that she described as a Christian, and that he's been staying at home taking care of his daughter while his wife worked. About two years ago, she said, he became more interested in his Muslim faith, and started praying five times a day.

Tsarnaeva said she isn't ready yet to believe Tamerlan is dead. She also said she spoke to someone at the FBI on Friday morning to tell them the two men are her nephews and that they are innocent, but that authorities have not contacted her.

It's because of the Chechen connection, she said, that her nephews are being targeted, but she pointed out that the two had spent only a year in Chechnya when the family attempted to move back. Dzhokhar was a toddler at the time, she said. Once war broke out, they left and eventually ended up in the U.S. as refugees in 2002.

Tsarnaeva, who says she was a lawyer in Kyrgyzstan, questions the evidence authorities have on her nephews.

"They are allowed to walk on the streets of Boston," she said. "They live in Cambridge, Norfolk street, which is five minutes from the cross-border between Cambridge and Boston. It's Monday, they are walking, maybe, you know, walking around for their business. Backpacks? How can this be suspicious, carrying backpacks? At the age of these boys."

Tsarnaeva, who became a Canadian citizen in 2003, said that her brother Anzor, father to Tamerlan and Dzhokhar, lives in Makhachkala, Russia now. Tamerlan, she said, visited Makhachkala a year ago.