Boston Marathon bomb suspect makes 1st court appearance

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has recovered sufficiently to appear in court where he plead not guilty to all 30 charges against him related to the April Boston Marathon bombings

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Boston Marathon bomb suspect makes 1st court appearance

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AFP) – Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the teenager accused of carrying out the Boston bombings, on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to all charges in US federal court, nearly three months after the deadly April attacks.

"Not guilty," the 19-year-old Tsarnaev – in handcuffs, shackles and wearing an orange jumpsuit – said repeatedly as the 30 counts were read out at the arraignment in Boston, which lasted seven minutes.

Seventeen of those counts are punishable by the death penalty or life imprisonment.

Security was tight at the courthouse for the hearing, which marked the first time Tsarnaev – an ethnic Chechen Muslim and naturalised US citizen – had been seen in public since his dramatic capture.

The shaggy-haired teen, who was seriously wounded as he tried to evade capture in the days after the attacks, still sported a cast on his left arm down to his fingers and his left eye was swollen.

The courtroom was packed with emotional victims of the April 15 bombings at the Boston Marathon finish line, some of whom needed canes or crutches to walk, as well as their relatives.

"I felt sick to my stomach – it was very emotional for me," Liz Norden, whose sons aged 32 and 33 each lost a leg in the attacks, said after the hearing.

The attacks, which left three people dead and more than 260 wounded, stunned America with scenes of carnage and chaos at one of the country's premier sporting events.

The pressure cooker devices were packed with metal fragments to cause maximum damage, and several people lost one or more limbs.

Tsarnaev, who had lived in the Boston area for a decade, had seemed well integrated into American life.

He is accused of plotting and carrying out the attacks with his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan, who died in a shootout with police as the pair tried to escape the Boston area several days later.

He is also charged in connection with the shooting death of a campus police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the brothers' wild overnight getaway attempt.

Tsarnaev "showed no remorse," said MIT police chief John DiFava.

The trial is not expected to begin any time soon, and would last three to four months, Judge Marianne Bowler said Wednesday.

The decision on whether to seek the death penalty is up to US Attorney General Eric Holder.

The next hearing was set for September 23. Tsarnaev is not expected to appear.