![\"Tamerlan](\"http:\/\/rt.com\/files\/news\/1f\/1d\/80\/00\/000_167006478.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA former Chechen militant who moved to the United States in 2004 admitted this week to meeting with accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev only weeks before the grizzly terrorist attack.<\/p>\n
Musa Khadjimuradov of New Hampshire told Voice of America that
\nhe\u2019s been regularly questioned by US authorities in the month since
\na pair of bombs detonated near the Boston Marathon finish line,
\nkilling three people and injuring more than 200 others.
\nInvestigators believe the act was perpetrated by Tamerlan and
\nDzhokhar Tsarnaev, two ethnic Chechen brothers who moved to the US
\nfrom Russia during adolescence.<\/p>\n
Authorities said earlier this week that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19,
\npenned a confession owning up to the crimes from inside of a boat
\nhe was hiding in while on the run from the police. He was charged
\nwith using a weapon of mass destruction after being apprehended and
\nis expected in court later this month. His brother, 26-year-old
\nTamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed during a manhunt for the two men. Now
\nKhadjimuradov says he saw one of those brothers less than a month
\nbefore the Boston tragedy.<\/p>\n
Khadjimuradov told VOA that he spoke with authorities starting
\nwith April 29, ten days after the manhunt for the Tsarnaev brothers
\nended. He has since spoken to investigators on a number of
\noccasions and, earlier this week, had his house searched after
\nagents arrived at his Manchester, New Hampshire residence with a
\nwarrant.<\/p>\n
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has reportedly stopped speaking with
\ninvestigators, but Khadjimuradov told VOA this week that he hasn\u2019t
\navoided interaction with the authorities. Khadjimuradov said he\u2019s
\nspoken with agents with both the Federal Bureau of Investigation
\nand the Department of Homeland Security, but doesn\u2019t have all the
\nanswers they desire about his acquaintance, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to Khadjimuradov, federal agents grilled him in hopes
\nof finding any knowledge he may have regarding a Seabrook, NH
\nfireworks store an hour away where investigators believe
\npyrotechnics were purchased to help build the explosives detonated
\nduring the April 15 race.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey [the FBI agents] saying he [Tamerlan Tsarnaev] has a
\nshooting practice here in New Hampshire, like two or three
\ntimes<\/i>,\u201d Khadjimuradov said. \u201cSo he buy fireworks here from
\nNew Hampshire, you know, and he buy some ammunition rounds here in
\nNew Hampshire. And before the attack, like three or four weeks,
\ncame to my house, so now I believe they thinking like he [was] up
\nin New Hampshire [and] like I tried to help him or do something,
\nyou know, like that<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n
But even if his own past as a militant fighter in Chechnya is
\none that has authorities asking questions, Khadjimuradov said he
\ndoesn\u2019t know much about what could have persuaded either Tsarnaev
\nbrother to allegedly commit an act of terrorism. Speaking to VOA,
\nKhadjimuradov said there was never any discussion about extremist
\nIslam with Tamerlan Tsarnaev that might have triggered the
\nattack.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing, never. He never talked about the religious,
\npolitics or anything like that to me<\/i>,\u201d Khadjimuradov said.<\/p>\n
According to authorities, the surviving Tsarnaev brother said
\nthe terrorist attack was hatched in protest of the United States
\nwar in Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Khadjimuradov moved to the US in 2004 with the aid of the United
\nNations refugee program. He is paralyzed due to wounds suffered in
\nChechnya three years earlier and told VOA that he first met
\nTamerlan Tsarnaev at a Chechen Society of Boston gathering in
\n2006.<\/p>\n