Al Qaeda leader
Ayman al-Zawahri has warned the United States of the “gravest
consequences” if Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or any other
Muslim prisoner is executed.
Tsarnaev,
named in a new online video message from Zawahri, was sentenced last
year to death by lethal injection for the 2013 bomb attack, which killed
three people and injured more than 260.
“If
the U.S. administration kills our brother the hero Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or
any Muslim, it … will bring America’s nationals the gravest
consequences,” Zawahri said.
Zawahri,
who became al Qaeda’s leader after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden
in 2011, urged Muslims to take captive as many Westerners as possible,
especially those whose countries had joined the “Crusaders’ Campaign led
by the United States”.
The veteran
Egyptian-born Islamist, shown wearing white robes and sitting in front
of green velvet drapes, said the Western captives could then be
exchanged for Muslim prisoners.
Western powers “are criminals and they only understand the language of force”, he added.
The
nearly hour-long video, which included images of Tsarnaev, gave no
indication of the location of Zawahri, believed to be based close to the
Afghan-Pakistan border.
Tsarnaev carried
out the Boston bombings along with his older brother Tamerlan, who was
killed in a confrontation with police soon after. No organization
claimed responsibility.
Tsarnaev is
being held at the “Supermax” high-security prison in Florence,
Colorado, while his attorneys appeal his death sentence.
Legal wrangling
over Tsarnaev’s fate could play out for years or even decades. Just
three of the 74 people sentenced to death in the United States for
federal crimes since 1998 have been executed.
Reuters.
